


The Phantom Report

by Workparty



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Interrogation, One Big Happy Family, POV Alternating, With Serious Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29169729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Workparty/pseuds/Workparty
Summary: It's difficult being at the top of your field, and Maddie and Jack Fenton know they've still got plenty to learn. Phantom may be willing to give them answers, but are they willing to ask the right questions?
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton, Danny Phantom & Fenton Parents
Comments: 45
Kudos: 198





	1. Chapter 1

Maddie Fenton stood over the lab bench, carefully threading the magnetic audiotape through the ancient reel-to-reel recorder.

It was clunky and unwieldy. It took up too much space in whatever cabinet or shelf it was occasionally moved to. It was a pain to thread tapes manually, versus the convenience of a cassette or digital recording. And she'd been putting up with it for over 20 years.

She looked up at the ghost containment cell.

It was still lying in the middle of it, in its inactive state. She would have said "passed-out", for a human.

But Phantom wasn't human.

Returning her eyes to the reel-to-reel, she finished threading the take-up reel and pressed record.

"Check, check." The recording level looked good. She glanced back at Phantom; it hadn't stirred from the noise.

Spirits were notoriously hard to get on electronic recordings, and she wanted every advantage for posterity. At 15 inches of 1/4" tape every second, the machine's _only_ saving grace was delivering the highest level of audio quality a "portable" machine could hope for.

She pressed stop, wound back to the start of the tape, and then waited.

* * *

"File number Alfa-Papa-1, tape number 1, session number 1. This is Dr. Fenton. The subject is recovering from its inactive state. In past field observations, the subject has been noted to be very responsive to verbal stimuli in the typical human audible spectrum. I will now attempt to attract its attention, and then validate its level of English-language comprehension."

"...wha? M-Maddie?"

"Phantom, do you hear me?"

"...uh, yes. What's—"

"Subject appears to be responsive to audio stimulus. Proceeding with basic comprehension testing. Phantom, can you understand what I am saying?"

"Yes, I can, I just—"

"Phantom, do you know where you are?"

" _Yes_ , I just don't—"

"Phantom, please describe your current location."

"Uh. I'm in your basement? In a cell. Y'know most people would think that's a weird thing to do to a teenager."

"Note, the subject has attempted to defuse the situation through the use of humor, and in particular note the casual vernacular. Subject appears to have a reasonable understanding of American English, and what could be described as a modern, if rudimentary, sense of humor."

"Hey! I have an _excellent_ sense of—"

"The subject is now objecting to a perceived insult. It appears it is cognizant of itself as an entity separate from the world, and how language is used to describe it. The subject will now undergo spatial reasoning tests to validate this. Phantom, please raise your left hand."

"How about first you tell me what exactly is going on here?"

"Phantom, it is in your best interests to comply with my requests."

"Ok, ok, yeesh, no need to look at me like that... Happy?"

"Subject has raised his left hand. Phantom, look to your right, and please describe what you see."

"It's... A mirror. What's special about a mirror?"

"Phantom, please describe what you see in the mirror."

"It's me. And there's a sticker on it that says 'Casper High Honors Society'. Is this Jazz's mirror?"

"Phantom, for the record, please verify whether you think your reflection looks correct."

"Yep-p. It's... A completely normal mirror."

"Interesting. Note the subject maintains no illusions about whether it is still alive or not; if its visual acuity is as good as field observations would seem to indicate, it refers to its appearance as a ghost as 'normal'. Now, then, Phantom..."

...

"...yes?"

"Now then, Phantom, please describe why you are aware of Jasmine Fenton."

"Oh. Ok. I, uh. Ok. please calm down Maddie, I swear it's nothing... I'm not stalking her! Or anything. She just uh. Jazz goes to Casper High, and I know about that because I'm there to fight ghosts. Ghosts show up at Casper all the time. I was just guessing she was your daughter. And everyone says she's smart. We barely even met, I just saw her that time she got kidnapped by Spectra. ...Please say something."

"...The subject is reacting to perceived anger-"

"That was _very real_ ang—"

" _Perceived_ anger, with what is clearly a series of lies intended to ameliorate that anger. While it is not in and of itself a useful explanation, the process that originated the lies is, itself, interesting."

"Well, I'm glad _you_ find this 'interesting'..."

"Phantom, please describe your degree of awareness of Daniel Fenton."

"I've... never met him before in my life."

"Hmm... The subject has learned from previous... Stimuli, and is choosing to deny any further involvement with the Fenton family, despite being a known associate of Daniel Fenton, as well as Jasmine Fenton. It is highly unlikely the subject is simply _unaware_ of their existence at this time, due to field observations indicating it has some level of object permanence—"

" _Some_ level?"

"—making it far more likely this was a lie fabricated for purposes of self-preservation. Further tests will be conducted to determine the nature of its relationships with both other ghosts and other humans. For reference purposes, the ghost referred to as 'Spectra' is in file number Alfa-Papa-8. Logs of the subject's suspected interactions with Daniel and Jasmine Fenton can be found under Community Exposure Files numbered Fenton-100, 101, 105, 107, 108 through 110,"

"—how many times have you—"

"112, 115, and 117 through 156. As of the time of recording."

"...Oh."

* * *

Without a further word, Maddie leaned over and shut off the strange machine. Danny wasn't sure if he liked the silence any better, especially when she was sitting there scribbling what looked to be a very _long_ series of notes on a clipboard.

She was also refusing to look directly at him.

"...Maddie?"

She remained silent, although the scribbling became more erratic.

Danny decided to press his luck. "Can I at least ask what you're... Planning to do here?"

She set down the pencil sharply on the clipboard she was using to brace her notes and looked at him with hard eyes. They were entirely obscured by goggles, but the look was familiar enough that he understood it well. All too well.

"I don't like you, Phantom."

"...Oh." What on earth was he supposed to say to that?

Maddie didn't seem to be waiting for a reply, however, so much as gathering herself to move past the opening salvo of dislike and onto the business at hand. It seemed to be a struggle.

"And as a matter of fact, I have quite a _bit_ planned for you. Right here." She spent a moment digging through a drawer and extracted a particularly thick manila folder. "You are, without a doubt, the strangest ectoplasmic entity to occupy our town. Dr. Fenton and I have questions. _Many_ questions. It is my opinion that the source of most of your peculiarities could be very quickly uncovered through more conventional means, while also neutralizing the clear and present threat you pose to our town, but lately..."

She trailed off. Danny didn't particularly like it when his mother was speechless. In his experience, it only happened when she was upset or angry. So it happened infrequently, mostly limited to awkward social engagements and necessary family events. But when it did happen, she withdrew from the conversation and spent clear effort on finding the most diplomatic phrasing possible while maximizing its impact.

"Lately, my family seems to believe that we'd be better off 'talking' to you. Quite recently, Dr. Fenton thought that perhaps it would be worth an attempt, although of course, the idea began with our children."

Danny's heart sank. He _did_ actually suggest this last week. Just... Not exactly like this. "I, uh, I do remember Danny saying he was going to suggest this, but uh... I thought you might get in touch through him."

"Phantom, I do not appreciate your relationship with my children. I do not appreciate you endangering them with your presence, nor do I appreciate you endangering any other part of this town with your presence. Let me be abundantly clear; I would much sooner banish you to the ghost zone and throw away the key than do this, but I trust my family very much, and right now that means talking to _you._ " She was silent for a moment, daring him to speak.

He thought it might be a good idea to not say anything.

"However, if I find the _slightest_ shred of evidence that you have unnaturally influenced my children, or for that matter my husband, or if I find any evidence at all that you are planning anything even remotely harmful, I will not hesitate." She gestured meaningfully to the eject button on the containment unit. He knew it well. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Uh, yes, Maddie, very clear."

"That's 'Dr. Fenton'," she corrected, "and you should know that any attempt to lie or obfuscate the truth will also end very poorly for you. Is that clear?"

Danny nodded.

"Good. We will pick this up tomorrow. Don't attempt to leave the confinement unit." She said it in a way that suggested she very much wanted him to try, or at least to ask what would happen if he did. But Danny had used it enough times himself to not have any further questions. Instead, he just nodded again.

Narrowing her eyes, she closed the file she'd been writing in, and walked upstairs.

Danny realized he'd floated right up to the glass over the course of their conversation. As the adrenaline faded, he worked his way back to the middle of the tiny room and laid down on the cool tile, splayed out as fully as he could manage.

Resolving to never give his mother ideas again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started writing this story with nothing planned but the first scene and the ending ✨


	2. Chapter 2

Maddie awoke to a ray of sunshine streaming in through the curtain. She checked the clock and sighed to find it was already 6:13. She hauled herself out of bed, worked the kinks out of her stiff joints, and made her way downstairs.

She'd been staring at the coffee machine, lost in its sputtering and dripping when she heard the stairs creak behind her in the living room. She peeked around the corner and saw Danny in space shuttle pajamas making his way into the kitchen. It was slightly amusing. He looked as haggard as she felt, with his hair stuck out at odd angles.

"Morning sweetie. You're up early, I hope I didn't wake you?"

He shook his head. "Birds were loud." He slumped down at the kitchen table, looking almost ready to nod off again.

"Are you sure you don't want to try to catch another hour or two?"

Danny made a noncommittal grumbling noise that she took for a 'no'. She tried not to laugh and poured two mugs of coffee, one black and one with plenty of milk.

She slid the milky coffee across the table to him and took a seat opposite. He automatically grabbed the mug and took a sip, seeming to come slightly more alive. She chuckled a bit.

He looked at her quizzically.

"Sorry, I shouldn't laugh. You're definitely not a morning person," she observed.

" _Definitely_ not. I swear it's easier staying up past 6 than it is waking up before 7... Uh, not that I stay up that late often. Or at all," he hastily added, when she raised an eyebrow over her #1 Mom mug.

"Uh-huh," was all she offered in reply. Danny seemed tense about something. She let him sweat a bit, hopefully rethinking his sleeping schedule, although it would have been blatantly hypocritical for her to say anything too direct about it. Eventually, she felt bad about his discomfort and decided to put him out of his misery. "I didn't mention yesterday, but your dad and I decided we would take your suggestion."

He very visibly choked on his coffee. Accidentally? No, it was a reaction, but it was an odd reaction. "Oh?" He tried to say it so casually. Very odd. "Which suggestion?"

"About the ghost, Phantom."

"You... Aren't going to hurt him, are you?"

"No, sweetie, of course not." She thought she should leave out the precautions and conditions she had explained to the ghost the night prior. The whole point of the silly exercise was to placate her children, after all; if they were worried about the ghost's 'safety' it would defeat the purpose. "We're just going to talk like you suggested. Yesterday I asked about his physiology. Today I thought I might go over his history a bit."

"Oh. I see."

A list of valid responses from Danny included, 'Where is he being kept', 'How did you capture him', 'What are you going to do with him', and other questions along those lines. The lack of _any_ such response was unexpected.

She frowned. "Well, I suppose I'd better get down there. What are your plans for the day?"

Danny looked away from her, toward the corner of the kitchen. "Not much. Probably going to head over to the mall with Sam and Tucker later."

"I see. Well, have fun." She stood to stand and started to walk for the door to the lab. Danny also got up and started walking back to the living room, mug in hand. Remembering something, she stopped just short of the doorknob. "Oh, and Danny?"

He stopped so abruptly the coffee nearly sloshed out of his mug. "Yeah, mom?"

"Don't drink too much coffee today." She smiled and winked. He grinned weakly back, making no promises.

* * *

"File number Alfa-Papa-1, tape number 1, session number 2. This is Dr. Fenton. The subject was initially found pacing back and forth in the containment unit. Note to self, add to the appendix of simulated human behaviors in subject Alfa-Papa-1."

"It's not a 'simulated behavior', it helps me think."

"Phantom, for the record, please state your name."

"My _name_? Danny Phantom."

"Has that always been your name?"

"Uh, yeah. For a while people were calling me 'Inviso-Bill', but I have no idea how that started."

"Phantom, to be clear, are you saying you have no memory of having another name?"

"...no?"

"...Phantom, to be _more_ clear, are you saying you have no memory of your _living_ name?"

"Oh, right. Yeah, I remember it."

...

"...that name being?"

"Mine."

"...I see. Phantom, when did you form?"

"Oh, almost a year ago I guess? Last August."

"And you've been haunting Amity Park ever since?"

"I mean, I don't really like to call it 'haunting'—"

"Phantom, please answer the question directly."

"Alright, alright, yeah I've been _haunting_ Amity Park ever since."

"Phantom, you've also been sighted in far-flung locations. There have been first-hand reports of you appearing as far away as Wisconsin, for example. For the record, a hard copy of these reports are available under Community Exposure Files, file number Whiskey-India-0-2."

"...sorry, what's the question here?"

"What caused you to appear in these locations?"

"Uh, I just go where I'm needed. There were ghosts there."

"Why did that motivate you to follow them?"

"I have to protect people."

"You consider yourself a protector."

"I mean, yeah? Somebody has to do it."

"You have never been observed destroying the ghosts that challenge you."

"...that's not really a question."

"Why?"

"...I don't think I want to make that... It's not my choice who lives or dies."

"Fascinating."

" _Is it_?"

"Phantom, when did you first begin interacting with the human population of Amity Park?"

"That feels a little bit out of left field— Ok, ok, yes, I'll 'answer the question directly'; pretty much right away? After I, uh, 'formed' I mean. What I said about Casper High was true. Last night, that is. When I said it attracts a lot of ghosts. That was the first place I ever fought a really tough ghost. Like, I'd seen a couple before then, the octopus looking ones, ectopuses. Or, 'ectopii' or whatever, but this was the first one that was really out to cause damage, y'know? So I met some people that day."

"Please describe the event."

"Well, you know about it, right? But it was this ghost of a lunch lady who was upset that Sa- students, had petitioned to change the lunch menu. I guess she took that as like a personal insult, so she kidnapped one of the students responsible, and uh. I had to save her."

"For reference, records related to the 'lunch lady' are filed under Alfa-Papa-0-2. Now, Phantom, was the student you saved one 'Sam Manson'?"

"...yes. I mean, I think that was her name."

"Phantom—"

"Ok, yeah, it was definitely Sam. You've got me, I saved the life of one of Danny's friends."

"Is that the first day you interacted with Danny Fenton?"

"...that was the first day I fought a ghost with him."

"Please clarify what you mean in making that distinction."

"...fine. I'd 'interacted' with him before then. He was there when the portal first turned on, and... I was the first ghost to come through."

"Fascinating."

"You really say that a lot, you know that?"

"...Phantom, do you remember the manner of your death?"

"What brought _that_ on?"

"Phantom, answer—"

"Ok, yeesh, no need to look at me like that, it's just a really weird question... I do remember how I died, thank you for asking."

"Phantom, please describe the event."

"..."

"Phantom—"

"Pain. A lot of pain."

"...I see."

* * *

The machine whirred to a stop again. It had been a bizarre line of questioning. Bizarre and uncomfortable.

And now they were back to the same awkward, slightly passive-aggressive silence that had followed the last session. Danny frowned, watching his mom scribble down more notes, face tightly impassive. Eventually, she stopped writing but otherwise didn't move a muscle.

Why was she so uncomfortable around him? He'd tried to be... Open-ish? Honest? He definitely hadn't outright told a lie. Was _that_ what made her uncomfortable? Like she'd expected he would have tried something dumb by now. Or maybe—

"Phantom,"

Danny jerked back to awareness. He'd gotten lost in his own thoughts long enough that she'd noticed he was staring. Now she was staring back at him, expression still unreadable.

And if she had noticed him jump, there was no sign of that, either. "This will go much smoother for both of us if you just answer my questions without the..."

"...details? 'Quips'? What?"

"Without the _nonsense_."

"Um. What do you mean by—"

"When I ask you a question, I am not asking you to tell me your... 'Life Story', to use a colloquial phrase. Your insistence on framing and editorializing forms unnecessary clutter in what I would _like_ to make a concise report."

"I don't know what you mean."

She sighed at him. "I _know_ you're doing it in the vain hope that I will succumb to this ridiculous illusion that you're some kind of hero, but—"

"No, I meant, what's 'editorializing'? I don't know that word."

"...it's when you present an opinion as fact. For instance, when you were describing the events of that fight at the high school, many of the details you described were wholly extraneous."

"'Extraneous'?"

"Unnecessary."

"Why didn't you just say 'unnecessary'?"

"...what grade level did you attain in life? Do you remember?"

"Uh, I passed 9th grade."

She was silent for a moment, mulling that over. "...I feel as though I'm targeting my vocabulary level appropriately. Were you a bad student, perhaps?"

Danny wanted to be very careful about how he reacted to that. It was (somehow) the least antagonistic his mom had sounded since they'd started. Possibly at any point in the last year, actually.

...whatever. It was progress. "Maybe. I'll be honest though, you're kind of throwing me off."

"'Throwing you off'?"

"It means—"

"I know what it means, Phantom, what do you mean by it?"

"It's just..." Danny ran a hand through his hair self-consciously. He had a weird life; his mom was throwing him off of describing how she was throwing him off.

"Just?"

"The way you're talking. With the 'Phantom this' and 'Directly answer the thing' and all that. Like, I'm OK with us talking, honestly, even if you did kind of kidnap me," he saw a poor reaction coming and held up a placating hand, "which is fine, honestly, maybe you thought I wouldn't come willingly, but that's not even the point. The point is, you might want a 'concise report', but I'm not sure I can help you make one?"

"Phantom, you _will_ answer my questions, or face the consequences."

"Yeah, see, that's the problem. Can't you just... Talk to me normally? If you have questions, just _ask them_. And if it's about my life you shouldn't be so surprised when I answer it... Like I do. I could _probably_ give you a short, boring answer if you wanted to know about, I dunno, The Boston Tea Party. I can tell you a bunch of people got angry about taxes and stamps and threw some tea off a boat. But if you ask a personal question the best answer I can give you is also going to be personal. Does that make sense?"

The anger peeking out of Maddie's expression earlier had evaporated. Now, she mostly just looked like she was trying to process everything. "...'The Boston Tea Party'?"

He buried his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes tiredly. " _Really_ not my point in all that."

"You are a _very_ strange ghost, Phantom."

Danny really had no idea how to take that. He was saved from having to respond by the door slamming open above them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To answer your question, "no".


	3. Chapter 3

Jack ran down the steps, hand flying over the well-worn banister as he went. He was glad to see Maddie already downstairs, and it looked like she had been talking with the ghost kid!

It had been Danny who'd convinced him, really. Jack Fenton wasn't one to turn down a good idea, even if most of the time he doubted his kids paid all that much attention to his and Maddie's work. But this time, in the middle of a bit of shop talk over the dinner table, his son had actually spoken up.

How had Danny put it? He thought they were _dismissing_ Phantom, that was the word. Jack certainly disagreed with that. They'd spent _plenty_ of time on Phantom. But Maddie was sure that their kids were too. As much as he hadn't wanted to believe it, the evidence was getting pretty overwhelming.

His kids thought they had a relationship with Phantom.

That was impossible, of course. Or maybe it was _improbable_ rather than impossible. He'd promised Danny he'd keep an open mind.

What was Danny's point again?

Right, that they'd been dismissing Phantom.

Phantom was a ghost, and ghosts were inherently dangerous. But Danny rightly pointed out, they never had really talked to a ghost in a controlled environment. Maybe they could learn something about spectral behavior. Maybe they'd find out something they could use to their advantage in fights. Maybe they'd find out nothing at all, but any data would be good data, even if it just confirmed their existing theories. The steady march of science, his professors had told him, should contain more blind alleys and bad ideas than eureka moments. That, and a lot of unpaid hours of lab work for the university's physics department. Jack usually left the second part out when he told it to his kids.

His smile fell a bit as he reached the bottom of the steps. Mads looked exasperated. This must not have been going all that well. Oh well; put on a happy face, and do the best you can.

As two sets of eyes turned to face him, he smiled broadly and kissed his wife on the forehead. He thought he might have seen Phantom flinch. Funny. "How's it going down here?"

Maddie dropped to a low tone. "Not well. I can't get a clear answer out of Phantom, and now he's complaining I'm talking above his reading level."

"Actually," the ghost spoke up, "it was more that if we're going to do this, and _I guess we're doing this_ , I'd rather have a normal conversation. Not some kind of crazy interrogation."

Phantom had good hearing. Good to know.

Maddie looked at him with the 'Get me out of here' eyes. It was the same look she used when cornered by his family at Thanksgiving. He knew just what to do.

"How about I take over Mads? I'll talk to the ghost kid for a bit, and you can..." Normally he'd come up with an excuse about helping with the turkey, but that didn't seem applicable here. "I don't know, actually. Whatever you want."

"Thanks, Jackie." Her lip turned up in a half-smile. As quietly as she could manage, she added, "What I _want_ is another cup of coffee..." He chuckled a bit and settled into the vacated seat as she made her way to the stairs without a backward glance.

* * *

"—this thing working? Oh, there it goes. This is file A. P. 1, tape 1, session number..."

"Session 3."

"Right, session number 3, thanks, ghost kid. This is Jack Fenton recording. I'll be discussing Phantom's interactions with our children, Danny and Jazz Fenton."

"Joy."

"Do you not like talking about humans?"

"Uh... No, it's just more that I'm not sure you'll like what I have to say."

"Why? Have you been putting them in any danger? Tried to possess them? Blackmailed them? _Shot_ them? Repeatedly grabbed them and flew them into the air and dropped them from high up, but then you catch them right before they hit the ground to intimidate them into accepting your rule over Amity Park?"

"...no. Nothing like _any_ of that."

"Well then, try me."

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Well, why do spend so much time around them? I know it's not because they're popular."

"Ok, ouch. And uh, to be clear, I'm offended by that because I consider them friends, that's all. But you're right, it's not because I'm trying to play some kind of long game and take over the school or whatever. They're just... Helpful."

"How's that?"

"Well, you know. I fight a lot of ghosts. Sometimes if the ghost is, you know, around _them_ , they'll help me fight it. They're good with Fenton gear. They keep cool in tough situations. And uh. They don't react too badly to me, right?"

"What d'you mean, 'react badly'?"

"Listen, I basically get two reactions. Either people run away when I show up, or there's the creepy minority who want to do like this hero-worship thing. I dunno. Jazz, and uh, Danny, they seem to just treat me like a normal person. I don't feel like I need to try really hard to be non-threatening. Or like I have to impress them. Either way, it just feels fake and exhausting, like I'm always trying to prove some people wrong and not disappoint people who... Look up to me? It feels weird to even say that."

"Are you telling me you don't like having an audience?"

"Um... I can see why you don't believe me, but honestly, I don't really want the attention. Like it's nice to be appreciated, right? Especially if the alternative is people screaming and running away. But... I'm just trying to do my best. Like, I can do a lot more to stop ghosts than a normal human could. So I feel like it's kind of on me to do some good. And... With the pressure, it's hard not to feel like I'm not good _enough,_ sometimes."

"Is that the only reason?"

"I don't like to see people get hurt, so, yeah. Everything else is—"

"Nah, I meant 'is that the only reason it's got to be _you_ doing the fighting'. There are plenty of ghost hunters out there. Why don't you hang up your boots and take it easy?"

"Well, I can, uh... When it comes to getting injured I'm tougher, too. So me doing most of the hunting is kind of part of 'people not getting hurt' for me. Which reminds me, actually, there's something I kind of wanted to tell you."

"What's that?"

"That ecto-skeleton—"

"You mean the one you stole from us?"

"...yeah. Sorry. But listen, that thing was _super_ dangerous. I wish you hadn't used it."

"Listen here ghost kid, I may be 'just a human' to you, but _Jack Fenton_ can roll with the punches. I'm no slack-wristed punk."

"No, sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I didn't mean to say you and Maddie aren't great ghost hunters, honestly. I mean, you've caught me twice, so... There's that. I guess you're better at catching ghosts than I am. But there's some stuff I'm probably better at, you know? Like robotic battle suits that need a ghost to control them, for example. I'm a better choice there."

"Ok, fine. But let the record show Jack Fenton doesn't back down from a fight. Got it?"

"Yes, sir, got it. The thought of fighting you terrifies me. I worry about it a lot."

"That's what I like to hear! Uh... What were we talking about?"

"...I dunno. Bunch of stuff. Did I answer your questions?"

"I didn't really have a list. Oh, right, my kids! So you like them because they treat you right, which is because we raised them with manners. Although we also raised them to not trust ghosts, so that's a bit of a mixed bag. How'd you get them to trust you?"

"I honestly don't spend _that much_ time around them..."

"Come on ghost kid, do I really need to go over all the times we've seen you with them or Danny's friends?"

"No, I really don't need to hear the list again. I guess... I dunno, they just trust me. And they _were_ nervous about me at first, I swear, so y'know, I guess in that sense you succeeded at raising them. But, I did save them both a couple of times. From bad situations, usually involving other ghosts. And... I guess it's more than that, too. They've spent a lot of time around me. They know me really well. Sam and Tucker especially, they know me better than I know myself sometimes. And Jazz has her moments. I don't know what I'd do without them."

"And that's it?"

"I mean, what can you say? It's hard to explain trust. I do what I say I'm going to do. I try to help people. Sometimes I make mistakes and then I try to fix them. ...why do you _distrust_ me?"

"If you fight as many ghosts as you claim to it'd be obvious why that's a problem for me."

"Well, you don't trust me because I'm a ghost, they do trust me even though I'm a ghost. I _want_ you to trust me, but it's hard to argue that either of them is like... Objectively wrong."

"Right. Well... That's all I really wanted from you for now. Let's end it there. ...Which one of these buttons stops the—"

* * *

Danny stood in the center of the containment unit, feeling unsure about... All of that. Talking with his dad was always something else. Unlike the talks with his mom, it was hard to know if that had gone well or not. Although he was pretty sure all the talks with his mom had gone objectively badly, so maybe that's just what making progress felt like.

Jack was still at the lab bench, fingers folded in front of his face, staring a thousand yards through him. It wasn't even directed at him, but under the stern gaze, Danny nervously drew his arms around himself, grabbing his arms. That seemed to shake the man out of his thoughts, a little bit.

"Hey, ghost kid?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"You need anything in there?"

"...what?"

"Yeah! Maybe a chair? A book to read? Anything like that. You might be here a while."

Danny tried really hard not to worry about how long "a while" might be, and failed miserably. "I was afraid you might say that."

Jack seemed to find that a bit funny but didn't laugh. It was an unusually restrained half-smile. "Well, how about it?"

"I mean, sure, why not. It'd be nice not to have to sleep on the floor."

"...you sleep?"

"Not as much as I should, but yeah, I sleep."

"I reckon we've got a camp bed around here somewhere, I can go grab that. You look about Danny's size, you should fit in his sleeping bag, too. ...Didn't really have a plan for if you said yes to the books, to tell you the truth. What do you like to read?"

"I read a lot of science fiction. When I get time, anyway, I've been pretty busy lately."

"Well, we've got time now." Jack rubbed his chin idly. "I think I've got a stack of old sci-fi anthologies around here somewhere. I'll see what I can dig up."

"Cool. Uh, thanks."

"No problem, ghost kid." Jack smiled at him. A smile without an agenda, just... Genuinely.

Danny smiled back. Maybe it had gone well after all.


	4. Chapter 4

Danny had forgotten his barely-touched coffee in the living room.

 _And_ he hadn't used a coaster.

Maddie slipped a coaster under the mug before thinking better of it. She picked it up and went upstairs, knocking softly on his door. "Danny? Are you still awake?"

There was no reply. She opened the door just a crack and peeked in; no sign of him. According to his alarm clock, it was still only 7:07 am, which was awfully early to go anywhere on summer vacation. For Danny, anyway.

He _had_ been acting unusual, though, hadn't he? There was a baseline of strangeness she had been told to expect from teenage boys; beyond a shadow of a doubt, Danny had fully entered that phase about a year ago. But now, without any obvious reason, he was acting strangely above the normal background level. Waking up and leaving the house so early. Acting "cagey", to use a colloquialism, around the topic of Phantom—

"Morning, mom." Maddie jumped a little, hastily closing the door as she turned to face Jazz. Her daughter was still in her PJs and just leaving the bathroom, and now looking at her with some concern. "Is everything OK? You look like you've seen— Uh, I mean, what's in Danny's room?"

Were _both_ her children nervous today? It seemed improbable without any obvious causes. What were the alternatives? ... _She_ was nervous about Phantom, only meters away in the basement. Their interviews were still on her mind, and perhaps she was overanalyzing. New theory: She was projecting her feelings onto her children, who were in fact acting the same as always.

Maddie forced herself to relax a bit. Be objective. "Oh, nothing, he just forgot his coffee downstairs." She gestured casually with the mug. Jazz seemed to accept that explanation. "Have you seen him? I've been in the lab interviewing Phantom, I didn't see him leave."

Something inscrutable passed over her daughter's face for a fraction of a second. "Yes, I think he said he was going to... Sam's house? For... to watch movies. He said he had no clue when he'd be back, so we shouldn't necessarily expect him at any particular time. And that he might come in so quietly that you may not notice. Almost like he never left the house at all!" She smiled wide enough that Maddie could smell mint toothpaste.

The stories didn't add up. In broad strokes yes, but not in particulars. There was nothing in either version that was especially worth lying about, either. Collectively this implied that neither story was true. From her nervousness, the balance of probability was that Jazz knew full well what strange activity Danny was up to today. This was itself strange; since the day Danny had learned how to climb on the cupboards, Jazz had _never_ covered for her brother. Or at least, if she had, she'd never acted like this while doing it. What changed?

That particular analysis would have to come later. This wasn't enough data to go on, and direct inquiry would lead her nowhere. Back to the original theory: Both her children were nervous today. But it would be best to tackle one riddle at a time. _And_ she should finish the conversation before an uncomfortable silence developed since Jazz was already looking quite tense. "Well, that's fine. I'll just dump it down the sink. Have a good day, sweetie!"

Jazz visibly relaxed. A data point, or confirmation bias? "Have a good day mom!"

Maddie walked downstairs again, dumping the coffee down the kitchen sink, watching as the last milky ribbons of liquid made their way down the drain. Jazz's willing involvement meant it was more likely that Danny was doing something embarrassing rather than dangerous. Still worth investigating, but for now, there was Phantom to consider.

...Direct inquiry would lead her nowhere. That was the trick, wasn't it? Put the other party at ease first, get answers second.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of thumping footsteps coming up from the lab. Jack opened the door, looking troubled. They locked eyes, and he answered her questioning expression. "I'm just going to grab some stuff for the containment cell. I think I'm building rapport with Phantom—"

"It's pronounced 'rapport', dear."

"Huh. Don't think I've ever said that out loud before. Anyway, I'm building 'rapport' with Phantom, and I think it might work out better for us if he was comfortable."

"I was just thinking that myself, actually. What are your thoughts?"

"Far as I can tell, he's being honest. Weird, but honest. Couldn't expect better all things considered, so we should keep up the charm offensive. I was going to go grab some of the camping gear if you want to tag in?"

"Sure thing, hon. I'm going to try... Being friendly. Let's see if I can recover my soft skills."

He smiled fondly. "Baby, you never lost 'em."

She was blushing as she walked down the stairs.

* * *

"File number Alfa-Papa-1, tape number 1, session 4. This is Dr. Fenton."

...

...

"...Dr. Fenton, are you OK? You're not saying anything."

"Ah, I... How are you doing, this morning, Phantom?"

" _What_? Dr. Fenton, I—"

"Please, call me Maddie."

"I'm _really_ not sure that I'm comfortable with doing that."

"No, no, really, it's... Fine. I want you to call me whatever you feel comfortable with. Earlier you demonstrated a level of familiarity that I should have reciprocated. We have... Met before, after all."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm smiling."

"...could you please stop?"

"Phantom, this isn't easy for me either, but I would like for us to get over this awkwardness."

"You aren't like this with everyone you meet, are you?"

"Of course not."

"Is it... _Just_ because I'm a ghost?"

"...I believe that may be a component, yes."

"How about I turn invisible; is this better?"

" _Absolutely no—_ Sorry. No, it's not. I'd prefer to see you."

"Understandable, I guess. If somebody came down here they might think you were crazy, talking to thin air."

"That wasn't my main issue—"

"That was a joke, Maddie."

"...yes, of course. My apologies."

"I'm, uh... I'm doing fine this morning. How are you?"

"Oh, um, fine. Just a bit tired."

"I noticed the extra coffee. Not a morning person, huh?"

"Not really, no. I do my best work in the evening. Do you have a preference?"

"I'm a bit of a night owl too, I guess. Not that I always get a choice, it's kind of a matter of whenever hostile ghosts show up."

"You make that distinction, 'hostile ghosts', as if there are other ghosts than you that you consider non-hostile."

"Well, yeah. Back in February I actually met this one ghost called Wulf – he's the one that looks like a giant wolf, but with the hoodie? I guess that might be obvious from the name – but anyway, he turned out to be pretty friendly. He was super helpful when I was dealing with these ghosts who had come through the portal to try to drag me to ghost-prison—"

"Did you say 'ghost-prison'?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm... Kind of supposed to be serving a 1000 year prison sentence in the Ghost Zone."

"What could you have _possibly_ done to earn that many years in prison?"

"Would you believe it was for bringing a box from the human world through the portal? I guess that's against the law."

"Phantom, I don't want to speak ill of your... Culture, but criminal justice in the Ghost Zone seems ridiculous and arbitrary."

"That's what I said! But with different words. Anyway, the prison guards showed up in Amity Park and started causing trouble. Overshadowed a bunch of people, mostly. I think their whole goal was to just make life difficult for me here, but Wulf managed to get me out of a couple of tough spots. So I'd classify him as one of the good ones. To be honest with you I don't actually know how many more there are, most of the rest I've met so far are kind of di—"

"Wait a moment, Phantom, did you say this was in February?"

"Uh, yeah. Right around the start of the month."

"You mean when you attacked the mayor."

"That wasn't the mayor. Or, it _was_ the mayor, but he was overshadowed. ...Hey, you were there, right? You know that ghost that Wulf was attacking? We'd literally just finished fishing him out of the Mayor Montez's body."

"You know there's no way to prove that, of course."

"Well, no. I guess not. You could always just trust me on this one though, right?"

"...I'll see if your account can be corroborated by a third party."

* * *

His mom reached over and turned off the recorder. "We're almost at the end of the tape, so we can end here, Phantom. Ah... Thank you, for talking with me."

"It was, um, my pleasure?" Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "This is still weird, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is." Maddie looked down at her hands for a moment, before adding with a slight shrug, "Although I did not find our conversation entirely unpleasant."

"Thanks?"

"That... Came out wrong."

Danny chuckled. It felt like they were getting somewhere, somehow. Nothing had changed, really. He was still in a cage in his basement getting interrogated, but at least both his parents were... Making an effort?

Maddie looked like she was honestly struggling to rally a response to his laughter. For a brief moment, Danny felt bad about having reacted at all and possibly taking them a step backward (Did his parents think ghosts laughing was creepy? _He_ found it creepy in horror movies...), but he was again saved by what sounded an awful lot like his dad stomping down the stairs.

Jacked rounded the corner with armfuls of equipment and boxes.

Maddie spun on the stool to face him. "Jack, what is all this? And why didn't you make two trips?"

"A second trip is for _quitters_ , Maddie! And it's for Phantom's containment chamber. Just some creature comforts. Or, 'apparition amenities'? No, no, forget I said that..."

"Phantom Furnishings," Danny offered.

"Hey, that's not bad!" His dad had opened the door to the chamber and was almost right next to him before Danny fully appreciated how this was going to work; certainly, before Maddie could finish saying it was a bad idea. The boxes were dropped near the walls with the sleeping bag before Jack held one end of the folding cot meaningfully out toward him. Danny was afraid to touch it, not least because it would put him within a foot of his dad while he was still in "ghost mode".

Jack finally sensed the hesitation but seemed to misinterpret it. "It's a fold-out cot. You need to grab that corner of it and pull it away from me," he explained patiently.

"I... Oh. Ok." Danny stepped closer until his arm was just barely able to reach the far leg of the cot from his dad, grabbing it gingerly. He was entirely unprepared for his dad pulling back forcefully, sending him stumbling straight into the man's side.

"Whoa, you're gonna have to brace yourself better than that." Jack pushed him back onto his feet lightly and very carefully counted him in as if the suddenness had been the only problem. "Alright Phantom, 3... 2... 1... Go!"

The cot sprung open and they dropped it to the floor with a clatter. Danny had done this a dozen times over his life but it had never been quite so stressful. He must have reacted visibly, too, because his father laughed and slapped him on the back.

"Never set up a camp bed before? I didn't take you for a city-slicker, ghost kid!"

"I... No, I've been camping a few times, it's just... Been a while."

"Sure, sure, fair enough. Anyway, here's your sleeping bag," it was picked up and thrown at his chest, and Danny managed to catch it without any further incidents, "and I rustled up some old boxes of science fiction magazines. Found 'em in the same corner of the shed, I had forgotten they were there. Man, I really need to get Danny to clean that out again..."

His dad looked at him intently after he said that, head cocked to one side as if he was trying to decide on something. Danny's heart may have stopped beating, but he was too busy freaking out to notice. There was no way they'd go a year without figuring it out and... _Now?_ Was it seriously happening _now?_

But then the moment passed and with an easy grin, Jack said something that Danny didn't quite catch over the flood of immense relief. His hand found its way to the back of his neck again. "Well, thanks for the magazines and stuff."

"Hey, no problem ghost kid. We're probably done with the interviews for the day, I reckon we've got a report to start writing. Right, Mads?"

Maddie, who had been watching this entire exchange intensely from the other side of the glass, seemed unprepared for the question. "Oh! Ah, yes. We can start on the first draft of the report with what we have so far, I suppose..."

His parents continued talking about drafts and division of labor while Danny kicked back on the cot, staring at the ceiling. That had felt like a close call for his secret, and at a really, legitimately awful time too. "Trapped and in a cage" was never what he'd had in mind when he'd thought about telling his parents. He couldn't change the truth, but it felt like some situations were worse than others for it to come to light.

Although, whether he wanted to or not, he _did_ need to have that conversation tonight. There was no more avoiding it.


	5. Chapter 5

This was a terrible idea, but he had volunteered for it. Again.

It was becoming a bit of a bad habit for Danny, talking without thinking and in the process, signing himself up for deeply uncomfortable conversations. He'd even realized it at the time, although it was hard to say if that made it better or worse. Maybe it meant he was getting better at pattern recognition since he'd seen it coming. Maybe it meant he was a masochist since he'd seen this coming and had said it anyway.

He'd said it once, and then he'd even doubled down on it. Apparently, Phantom fought ghosts with Jazz and Danny at their school.

And he was left with the distinct impression that Jack was going to try to double-check his story.

To be honest... He had seen his sister around as Phantom a few times at this point. This conversation was something that _probably_ would have had to happen eventually no matter what. He hadn't been putting it off, exactly, he just wanted to try and get a feel for how she felt about him as a ghost first. Honestly, he hadn't been putting it off.

He wasn't putting it off now either. He was just waiting for the right time to knock on her door.

While pacing back and forth in the hallway, trying to figure out what he was even going to say. He was going to do it, he just had to figure out what to say, then figure out when to knock on her door, and then—

And then her door opened, and Jazz looked directly at him, surprised to see him standing there. "Oh, hey Danny."

"Uh, hi Jazz. What's up?"

"...'what's up'?"

"Yeah, like what are you doing?"

"Danny, please afford me the courtesy of knowing what 'what's up' means. You just literally never say that to me, and it's suspicious."

"I do _so_ ask you 'what's up'! Like right now, I want to know what you're doing."

"So you're actually interested? When you asked it sounded like a phatic expression."

For the third time that day, it occurred to Danny that it was hard to have a normal conversation in his family. "...can we start this over?" He ran a hand through his hair, grabbing a fistful of black locks near his neck. "Do you have a minute? I want to talk about something."

"Sure, you should have said so."

"Um... Can we talk... Not in the hallway?" He glanced at his parents' bedroom, where he knew they were both probably still wide awake.

Jazz stepped to one side, gesturing him into her bedroom. He hovered awkwardly in the middle of the room as she shut the door and sat down in a high-backed armchair.

Neither of them said anything for a moment.

Jazz must have realized he probably wasn't going to break the silence first, when he couldn't even figure out what to do with his hands while he stood there.

"So... What's up, Danny?"

"Uh, Jazz, we... We trust each other, right?"

She looked at him skeptically.

"Right, sorry, dumb question... I uh... There's something I've been wanting to talk to you about for a while now, actually, and I'm not really sure... I haven't really been sure how to actually say it, because it's weird, and I know that it's weird and you might think that I'm weird when I say it."

"Uh huh. And what... Oh." Jazz seemed to realize something. "Oh, Danny, I think I actually know what you wanted to talk about. I've been wanting to talk with you about this—"

"Jazz, this isn't about Gilbert."

"No, I meant— Wait, how do you know about Gilbert?"

"I have a functioning pair of eyes? I've seen how you look at each other. And even for the badminton team, he's way too cool to spend that much time role-playing a British diplomat if he wasn't planning to ask you out."

"Ok, for one thing, the Model UN isn't 'role-playing', and for another thing, it's not uncool. A lot of respected debaters and diplomats have started prosperous careers in Model UN clubs. ...And Gilbert and I aren't dating."

"Not for lack of trying, you know that right? But anyway this isn't about him."

"No, I know it's not about him—"

"I'm Danny Phantom."

Danny crossed his arms and looked at her questioningly. He wanted her to take it well, more than he'd wanted almost anything. In his hallway over-thinking, he'd imagined she'd probably have a million questions for him about being a half-ghost or why he was taking on such powerful enemies. Or maybe just not believe him. His darker thoughts had her panicking and telling their parents, but he was trying to think of positive things. Nowhere in his wildest dreams had he expected her to say

"I know."

"...what?"

"But I'm really glad you told me! I'm really proud of you Danny, it just shows that you're starting to accept this as part of your life, and I'm obviously happy that you trusted me enough to tell me eventually, even though—"

"You _what_? _How? When?!_ " Danny was sputtering, barely able to keep his jaw off the floor.

"Oh, um, after that fight with Spectra. I saw you transform. I don't really know how you 'work' or anything, but I was assuming you were genuinely Danny Phantom. Or rather, that Danny Phantom was you in disguise."

Danny swayed a bit, and Jazz patted the chaise next to her chair. Wordlessly he walked over and flopped back into it.

Jazz leaned on her hand, regarding him fondly. "Do you feel better?"

"...the important thing is you know."

"Yes, _and_ , you told me yourself. That's important too."

Danny rubbed his eyes with both hands, then swept his bangs off his face, collecting himself for what was initially supposed to be the easy part. "Mom and dad caught Phantom."

"...oh?"

"Yeah. He's, uh, downstairs in the containment unit right now."

"What's... Their plan?"

"They _just want to talk_."

"...huh." Jazz sank back a bit, looking confused. "That sounds... Reasonable, for them."

"That was basically my reaction. The problem is they know that Phantom hangs around with Fenton," he pointed at himself, "and apparently they think I associate with you, too."

"Do you think we're going to get cross-examined?"

"Oh, I'm _sure_ we will be _._ But all they know so far is that we've hunted a few ghosts together. And I think they think that we're Phantom's source for Fenton gear. Which is true, I guess. Mostly they're trying to make sure we haven't been 'unnaturally influenced' and that we're not in any danger."

"Have you considered—"

"No."

"—that maybe this would be easier—"

" _Absolutely not_."

"—if you just told them—

"They'd _kill_ me."

"Danny, I'm sure it wouldn't be that bad. Give them _some_ credit, they're still our parents."

"Yeah, that's the problem, they're _our_ parents. They're not normal. _I'm_ not normal. Either they'll think Phantom is delusional and I'm overshadowing myself, or they'll try to 'fix' me somehow."

Jazz sighed. "I won't press the issue if you're not comfortable."

Danny crossed his arms and looked at her skeptically. "That's a weird way to say you don't approve."

"I mean it! Like I said, you should want to tell people yourself. ...Even if I think you might be a bit slow to trust."

"Ah, there it is." He smirked up at her. She rolled her eyes and shoved his face away, and he broke up laughing for a moment, before reigning himself in. "...I will tell them eventually. I just... Don't think this is the right time."

"So what is your plan, then?"

"Honestly? Just answer all their questions as truthfully as I can. I hope they can trust Phantom w _ithout_ knowing it's me first. And then we'll see where it goes from there, I guess."

"That certainly is... A plan."

He sat up and looked at her with a weary half-smile. "I've been winging it for a solid year, Jazz. This is practically Garry Kasparov-level stuff compared to what I normally get away with."

* * *

 **Report on** **AP01** \- Draft #3 (Aug. 8)

 **File Opened:** 2004-10-01

 **Aliases:** Danny Phantom, _Inviso-Bill_ _—_ _It's a valid alias Mads_

 **Date of Formation:** 2004-08-?

 **Method of Death:** Unknown (likely violent) _criminal activity? would explain_ _heroism_ _/_ _obsessive protective tendencies_

 **Height:** 161.2cm (5'3")

 **Weight:** ~31kg (68 lbs)

 **Gender:** Male _Ectoplasmic entities don't have genders Jack, it's_ _a ghost_

 **Notes:** Phantom has thus far defied our expectations in terms of emotional intelligence. While allowing for a certain level of unfamiliarity with technical language, he is clearly capable of carrying on what a typical human would consider to be a normal conversation. Recent sense of humor. Casual vernacular. This perhaps helps explain his appeal among local teenagers, who seem to react well to sarcasm.

It should be noted this also makes Phantom very dangerous. His intentions for gathering this following are unclear at this time, but it is entirely possible its reasons are less noble than it appears, especially in light of the "M. Bersback broadcast intrusion incident" (see also, AP11 aka "Ember McLain"). It is also possible Phantom himself is unaware of or uncomfortable with his "star power". _Jack, it seems unlikely that this would happen by accident, no other ghost makes efforts to "win hearts and minds". Comparisons to the Pied Piper of folklore seem apt._

Phantom resembles a typical North American teen-aged male of somewhat short stature. Coloration partially nonstandard, complexion abnormally human in appearance. _This may be an adaptation on its part, see Appendix C - Simulated Human Behaviors._

Phantom describes feeling the physical need for sleep. It is possible this is a result of extended periods outside of the ghost zone, or that the current theoretical models of ghost biology are inaccurate on the matter. It does appear to be genuine, however. In any case, further research is required.

In the field, violent acts against other ghosts are a relatively common occurrence. Phantom attests to some feeling that he is responsible for keeping the town safe.

Violence against humans seems to be rare relative to its overall sighting rate. It is possible that the irregularities in this ghost's behavior are part of a larger process that allows it to go longer periods of time without violence, although the mechanism by which this occurs is unclear. - _Should we be investigating_ _the_ _other 'non-hostile' ghosts_ _he told you about_ _before publishing this?_ Phantom is unlikely to take responsibility for any such actions, given the nature of its apparent obsession, and it may not be a worthwhile line of inquiry.

Phantom is particularly responsive to human kindness. _Really, Maddie?  
It sounds more obvious when you write it down_ _,_ _Jack_

* * *

Maddie sighed and closed the folder.

Next to her on the bed, Jack perked up at the sound but remained buried in his book, reading glasses perched low on his nose. "Long day?"

" _Very._ "

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"It can wait until the morning..."

He finally set the book down and shifted to face her, pulling the glasses off his face. "When you say that I know it's gonna eat you up until 3 in the morning."

She looked over. He had a half-smile on his face and a glint in his eye. He was right, of course, although talking about it probably wouldn't help her sleep either. "Jack, it's about this last A.P.-1 draft..."

"The Phantom Report?"

She shot him a look. "Yes, that. I'm worried about some of the comments you've added."

"What's wrong with my comments?" He raised an eyebrow. It looked like they were going to have _this_ discussion again.

"I worry you're humanizing the subject. A lot of the language you've used, it's very... Familiar. We need to remain objective, Jack. This may be the founding document in the field of spectral interviewing."

Jack chuckled softly. Well, softly for him. "Here I thought Phantom had already gotten on your case about that, Mads."

"I'm being serious, Jack."

"I know, honey. Maybe I'm getting too attached, but..." He paused. She turned to face him in surprise, wondering what had caused that. He _rarely_ had trouble finding the end of a sentence by the time he got to the middle of it. But now his brow was furrowed in thought.

"I'm worried we made the wrong call on this one last year. He acts more human than he lets on."

"Meaning?"

"I'm thinking it may be a side-effect of spending so much time interacting with humans. It would account for the high emotional intelligence scores. With the way he talks, it's possible he's even still in contact with his human family."

New theory: Phantom was in continuous contact with his human family/friends/social groups. It was a somewhat ridiculous notion, wouldn't its family react in horror? Or were the circumstances of its death traumatic enough that the desire to see an unearthly manifestation of their son/brother/friend's past self overruled all common sense? Probable, in the case that their hunch about its death was accurate. Perhaps it wasn't so far fetched.

If the scenario wasn't out of the question on the face of it, what was the supporting data? There was the high emotional intelligence, that was accurate. Did this also account for the obsessive protective impulses? His... "Heroism", to use the media's preferred terminology. Conversely, the—

Jack nudged her. "You're not saying anything again."

"Ah, sorry. I was just thinking about your idea. It's an... Interesting theory."

He grinned. "Hey, I made it to 'interesting'! That's better than I usually do going way out on a limb this late. Last night's idea was 'poorly conceived and unlikely to succeed'."

"Jack, nobody would _ever_ buy gum that tastes like bacon." She frowned and he just smiled more broadly, shifting over to wrap an arm around her shoulders.

"I stand by all my ideas. Except for the bad ones."

Maddie sighed and leaned into his side. "We can ask about his social contacts tomorrow. Although maybe you should take over, I worry I may... Not be particularly suited to this."

"You do great, honey. Just give Phantom a chance to surprise you."

Surprise was one word for it. Maddie's mind was still going a thousand meters a second, turning the day over, re-examining what felt like... Very little they had learned.

After another moment's pause, Jack spoke up. "Y'ever notice that Phantom looks a lot like Danny?"

"Really? No, I didn't think they looked anything alike."

"Could've been a trick of the light, but from a certain angle, you'd swear they were brothers. I wonder if that's weird for them when they're in the same room?"

Maddie _hmm_ ed in vague agreement, without particularly agreeing. She couldn't see it, anyway. ...Although that reminded her, she hadn't brought up the day's other strange events with Jack yet. Namely, _Danny_.

"Say, Jack, did you hear Danny talking to Jazz out in the hallway earlier?"

"I thought so. Why?"

"I think Danny may have started dating. It might be time for you to have 'the talk'."

"Hey, atta boy! He's a regular cassava, just like his old man."

"'Casanova'."

"You flatterer." He planted a kiss in her hair, and in spite of herself, she laughed.


	6. Chapter 6

It was easy to oversleep when you couldn't set an alarm. _That_ would be a little too suspicious.

Danny was basically relying on the fact that he'd become an incredibly shallow sleeper in the past year, and the birds outside his window were usually up at dawn with his parents. On a normal day, he'd just choose to ignore them, roll over, and try to fall back asleep. Today, he snapped to awareness, and his heart almost pounded out of his chest as he scrambled to check his clock, hoping the more reliable sparrows hadn't taken the morning off.

6:41. Not too bad, but he'd have to hurry. He was out of his room in a flash, taking the steps two at a time, nearly slipping and completely losing it toward the bottom; if he couldn't float, he would have. He barely righted himself at the foot of the staircase in the living room before his dad peeked around the corner from the kitchen, looking at him with some confusion.

"Morning, Dann-o."

"Morning dad!" Danny forced himself to smile, approaching the kitchen. His dad had returned to the stove, where he seemed to be frying eggs.

"You're up early. Want some eggs and toast?"

"Uh," they looked inanimate. "Sure, that sounds good."

Danny got about halfway through pouring himself a cup of coffee before he realized with a start that his mother wasn't in the kitchen. That could be a problem.

"Is mom downstairs already?" he asked cautiously. His dad looked at him with a slightly knowing smile, which was very un-reassuring. ...was that just 'assuring'? No, that would mean it was good, and this was _un-good_.

"Not yet, she was up pretty late. I think I'll be the first one to talk with Phantom this morning after all." Jack shut off the burner and turned to face Danny directly, seeming to evaluate him closely. He was about to upgrade the morning from "un-good" to "very un-good" when the toaster popped behind him, and he realized that's probably what his dad had been waiting for. Probably.

Danny got out of the way, sitting at the table with his coffee. _Probably_ wasn't a great way to start off the day, particularly after the weirdness of the previous morning. The brief glance Jack had given his ghost in the containment unit had planted a seed in Danny's mind that he couldn't quite seem to uproot. There had been more glances throughout the day, although they hadn't directed any more questions to "Phantom", leaving the ghost to try to concentrate on reading on the cot (not that he could).

And now, he needed to know how much his dad knew before that seed of doubt blossomed into a full-blown panicked confession. The metaphor didn't make sense, but he was sure that's what would happen.

He chugged back half a mug of the scalding liquid to steady himself as his dad set down two plates of eggs and sat opposite him. "So, how did it go with Phantom yesterday anyway?"

"Good! He's interesting to talk to, I reckon we're going to learn a lot from him."

"Oh, good, good... Uh... He hasn't, or, you haven't found anything... Too crazy? Unexpected, I guess?"

His dad seemed to mull that over for a moment. "He's been pretty honest so far."

"Is that... A good thing?"

"Huh? Of course it's a good thing. Just didn't expect it."

"Well, uh, I'm glad... He's being honest, I guess."

"Is that _just_ because the whole thing was your idea to start with?" Again, his dad had that twinkle in his eye, like he and Danny were both in on some kind of joke.

Danny opened his mouth to reply but had no coherent response to offer. Instead, he dove back into his coffee. His dad just laughed.

"So, what's the plan for today? Hanging out with friends all day again?"

"Uhh... Yeah, something like that."

The three signs of the coming apocalypse were as follows: Jack's smile fell a bit. He set his knife and fork on his plate and pushed it aside. Then, he folded his hands and placed them very seriously on the table between them. Danny was frozen until a clump of scrambled egg fell off his fork, at which point he pushed his breakfast aside as well. He'd suddenly lost his appetite anyway.

"You know son, I know we haven't... Exactly talked a lot. About serious life events, I mean."

"...dad?" Danny attempted.

But there was no stopping this freight train. "I know your body is going through some... Changes, and those might be confusing for you to try to work out by yourself. Or... Maybe you think you can find out everything online, which you probably can nowadays. But I just want you to know that not everything you read on the internet is... How it is. In the real world. Especially as far as _that_ is concerned. Do you know what I mean, son?"

Jack looked up at him expectantly. Danny tried to respond but instead made a noise a bit like all the air being let out of a marshmallow. His dad nodded and continued.

"Yeah. Well, anyway, I want you to know your dad isn't just a ghost hunter, or not just a _scientist_ , I'm also your dad. And if you're ever, well, confused or scared, I want you to know you can talk to me about it. Whenever you want to talk about it, I'll be there for you, Dann-o." Jack smiled and reached over the table to pat Danny's hand lightly, which he realized was clawing at the tabletop like he had early-onset rigor mortis.

They sat in complete silence until it got more awkward, which Danny hadn't actually thought possible, as he fought off a powerful urge to run out of the house. Either 10 hours or 10 seconds later, he focused enough to gather a response.

"Uh, thanks, dad, I'll... I'd really better get going, so long!"

 _Then_ he ran out of the house, ignoring whatever his dad was saying from the kitchen.

He slammed the door behind him a lot louder than he normally would have, turned sharply, and slumped down against the cool brick just out of sight of the windows.

His heart was hammering in his chest.

And his dad definitely knew.

* * *

"File A. P. 1, tape 2, session 5. This is Jack Fenton. It's 'round about... 7:23 am. I'm not just waking you up, am I Phantom?"

"..."

"...Phantom, you look a little green, are you feeling OK?"

"Uh, sorry, um... Sorry. I just... Don't really know what we're doing here."

"Well, I thought I'd ask you a couple of questions, for the recording y'see. But if you're not feeling up to it we can always do this later."

"No, that's... I see what we're doing now. Ask away, Jack."

"Alrighty! That's good to hear because I've got a bit of a big one for you to start. What do you like most about the human world versus the ghost zone?"

"That... Is a big question. Well. Have you ever been to the ghost zone?"

"Not apart from two weeks ago, no."

"Oh yeah, I guess there was that... But no, I meant. Uh. If you'd been there 'normally'. And normally the ghost zone is... Well, I just about said 'dead'. Not a whole lot happens there, and when something does it's usually awful, in my experience. So most of the time it's just a whole bunch of floating rocks and occasionally you run into somebody who wants to skin you alive. The uh, human world, it's not like that; when stuff happens here it's not always bad. And hardly _anyone_ threatens to kill me."

"It sounds a bit like you stick around here because you like humans."

"I guess that's one way to look at it. There's a _bit_ more to it than that though. You know that, right?"

"What else would I know?"

"Just because I'm... I'm like _this_ , I'm not going to leave my life behind. I can't... Just, I can't just leave my friends and family behind. I thought you'd understand that. I'm not evil. I haven't changed."

"Well, you can't say _nothing_ changed. How– Wait, I know what you meant, but you're a ghost now, and you must have known that would frighten some people, right? How did your friends take it when they saw you for the first time?

...Speak up a bit, I didn't catch that."

"I said, they were there. When I became a ghost, they were in the room."

"That must have been pretty frightening."

"Don't worry, it was terrifying. One minute we're all joking around, and 12,000 volts or whatever later, I'm glowing and walking through walls. How would _you_ react? ...actually, don't answer that, I don't want to know how you'd react. But my friends cared about me anyway. They've stuck with me through all of this and I know they always will. Even if sometimes 'let's hang out with Danny' means running around town chasing ghosts."

"Just checking, when you say 'hang out with Danny', do you mean you, or my Danny?"

"...Ok, wow. I guess ' _not your Danny_ _'_."

"The names are a bit confusing, that's all."

"Well sorry to be such a huge problem for you! I didn't ask for any of this to happen."

"Of course not. So if your friends were there at the time, and they were OK with you like this, how did your family take the news?"

"...what?"

"You know, how did they react to finding out you'd died?"

"Y'know, I really don't know what you're trying to get at here. Is this all meant to be some kind of guilt trip for not telling you all this sooner? Do you really want me to pour my heart out on tape? Well, fine! I didn't tell my family I was a ghost because I thought it would be _easier_. It was easier to be Danny Phantom without having to imagine my parents watching me on TV every night, never mind seeing them _react_ to me like this. Can you blame me? Just look at us right now."

"Phantom, I'm—"

"You know what? Forget it. I really don't want to talk to you right now. I'm on like four hours of sleep, so I don't know what you think you're playing at but it _hurts_ , ok? And I can't deal with this right now."

"Phantom, I'm not really sure what I said, but I'm sorry. I'm not trying to rile you up, honest. Do you want to avoid talking about family?"

"..."

"...ok, I'll just go ahead and turn this off—"

* * *

Well, that could have gone better.

Jack still wasn't quite sure what he'd said that had the ghost kid so fired up. It's possible Phantom was more like a teenager than he'd given the ghost credit for. Meaningful discussions before about 10 am were always a bad idea. As he'd been reminded once before this morning.

That was a whole other bucket of problems beyond and above the ghost kid.

He'd received "the talk" when he was Danny's age. His own father had gotten the point across, alright, although Jack was pretty sure Danny wouldn't have appreciated his grandfather's methods; an academic to the core, the man had prepared a lecture with a slideshow and anatomical models, with assigned reading from a biology textbook.

On the other hand, Jack hadn't felt the need to run out of the house before they even talked about... Yeah, maybe the old man was laughing it up on a cloud. Bore your kids instead of making it awkward, that was the Professor Fenton way. He chuckled a bit at the thought.

Phantom glared up at him accusingly from the cot, before burying his face back in his arms. Whoops.

Hesitantly, Jack pushed the stool away from the lab bench and quietly made his exit from the lab. No sense pressing the issue when the other party was a closed book.

So, he had two moody teenagers to deal with. One was probably a pile of hormones and girl problems, the other was sulking for... Completely unknown reasons. And since Phantom didn't have the luxury of up and leaving the house, Jack would probably have to figure that out first.

At least it was just one thing at a time.

Jack looked at the table where he and Danny had their failed heart-to-heart and a kernel of an idea formed in his mind. What had Phantom said? He'd only had 4 hours of sleep? On the assumption they had been wrong about ghost biology all along, that might give him an opportunity—

There was a thump in the living room, and Jack perked up in alarm. Probably not a ghost.

Better check it out anyway.

He tried to sneak a peek into the room but didn't see anything particularly unusual from the kitchen. Entering the room fully, he lingered for just a moment, looking for anything out of place before he heard the staircase creak behind him.

"Morning, Maddie!" Jack smiled fondly at her as she sleepily made her way down the steps, eyes still half-closed. It looked like the thump he heard may have been her rolling out of bed.

"Good morning, sweetie, but not so loud, please... Not before coffee..."

"Sure thing, I'll take care of it. How about you just sit down?"

"That sounds nice..." She slumped back in her usual chair, rubbing tired eyes. Did _anybody_ sleep in this house apart from him? ...did he snore or something?

He poured two fresh mugs of coffee and slid one over to her. "Rough night?"

"Exceedingly." Maddie took a sip and came alive enough to make eye contact. "I was up late thinking."

"Worrying?"

"Worrying."

"About Danny?"

"Ah..." She took another drink of coffee, suddenly very interested in the far corner of the kitchen.

"...About Phantom?"

"I can be worried about two things at once, Jack."

He chuckled dryly. "I guess you'd be right to. I'm not batting a thousand today."

"Oh?" It was subtle, but after 24 years, he knew when the gears behind those remarkable eyes started turning. Ready to process. Which was good, he could use a sanity check.

"Well, to bring you up to speed, first 'the talk' with Danny went so badly that—"

"Wait, Danny is already up?"

"Yeah, and he already left. I was getting to that. I think you might have been on the mark about him dating, he had this deer-in-the-headlights look. High-tailed it right out the door. I think it must have hit a little close to home."

"Well, at least you've initiated contact?"

"It'd be a lot better if he would contact back, if you see what I mean. I worry about some of the stuff these kids read about on the internet."

"It was simpler back in our day," she agreed.

"...what did we do again?"

"I recall a lot of wild speculation and hearsay."

"Oh, right. Well, still, Dann-o's probably off at Tucker's place and we're probably not gonna see him 'til after dinner. I guess we'll see if he's got any questions for us then."

"How about Phantom?"

Jack faltered for a moment. "I think the family angle might be a little bit of a sore spot with him. I've pretty much confirmed at least half our theory though, he's still in regular contact with his friends from when he was alive. I'm still not convinced he's made _no_ effort to contact his family, but I'm not about the press the attack."

Maddie murmured a vague agreement over her mug.

"He complained about a lack of sleep, too, so that's some more data on the ghost metabolism front. Hey, that reminds me!" Jack snapped and got up to pour another cup of coffee.

"Jack? Are we expecting company?"

"No, even better! You should take a coffee down to Phantom."

"...why are we giving a ghost coffee? Sorry, I feel like I've missed something."

"Coupla things. He was complaining about a lack of sleep, so he might be a bit more friendly with some caffeine. If he can drink it, that's even more data, and we don't even have to cut into anything to get it. And even if he can't I reckon he'll appreciate the gesture. Assuming he recognizes it as a kind gesture. Come to think of it, if ghosts _can't_ drink coffee, he might feel insulted, but either way that's data too so I'd say it's worth a shot."

Maddie seemed skeptical, but sighed and walked over to take the second mug from him. "I'll try anything once..."

Jack grinned. "That's the spirit!" He loved that about her; always the skeptic, always willing to try anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Whoops"


	7. Chapter 7

Coffee doesn't replace the need for sleep.

The best that caffeine can do, in a human, is to bind to receptors in the heart and brain, preventing them from receiving an adenosine molecule, and thus blocking the signals that produce tiredness while also causing a rapid heart rate. It was a complex process that mimicked a good night's rest to some extent, within certain limitations.

Maddie knew the effects of coffee _very_ well. It was in her top 3 favorite stimulants.

Phantom, on the other hand, didn't have a heart. Or for that matter, a brain. Phantom was _a ghost_. Strange how she kept needing to tell people that.

It didn't have adenosine receptors for caffeine to work on. The ghost didn't have a stomach, kidneys, liver, or any of the manifold organs required for what Jack was proposing. It shouldn't even _feel tired_ from a lack of sleep. This was pointless, from almost any perspective. It wasn't inconceivable that the liquid would just drop straight through it intangibly, and she'd have to go into the containment unit with a mop.

But she was already on day 3 of humoring her family. If Phantom was to be treated like a human, she would... Treat him like a human. For now. As best as she could manage.

She balanced the two coffee mugs in one hand and took the stairs carefully, mindful not to spill anything. It had the side effect of making her approach almost completely silent; at least, quiet enough to overhear Phantom talking in hushed tones.

"—yeah, seriously, it's all fine. ... Literally just talking to me."

Was Phantom... Talking to himself? Maddie frowned and slowed her approach.

"I know! It's crazy, right? After a year of shooting at me, suddenly _now_ it's time to talk. ... No, no, it gets weirder, trust me; I'm like 99% sure he knows everything anyway. ... Yeah, _everything_."

Maddie peeked around the corner on the landing. The ghost in the cell had the cordless phone from the living room (somehow) and was floating in the middle of the small space, folded in on himself slightly with one arm wrapped around its knees. He had a slightly defensive look in his posture.

If the conversation with Jack had gone as badly as she'd been told, who would he choose to call? Who else would know 'everything', whatever that meant? ...And how/why/when did he have their phone?

"That's the thing, I can't really figure out how he's taking the news. It's super weird, at first he seemed... Kinda cool about it? And then he acted like I'm a completely different person. It... It really sucked, actually. Like I would have preferred shouting because that would actually make sense. ... Uh-huh, exactly." Phantom stretched out and flipped over onto his stomach, still floating in mid-air. Maddie couldn't see his face anymore, but she could see his mood had changed slightly; there was an echoing chuckle in response to something his conversation partner said.

"I guess you're right. Well, I'll see how much _she_ knows when she gets down here. I don't know if he told her or not. ... I mean, would _you_? ... Yeah."

His voice dropped a bit and Maddie struggled to hear him. She walked down a few steps to hear better.

"I guess the '100% ghost-free weekend o' fun' is probably canceled. ... Ugh, I don't know Tucker," Maddie's heart skipped a beat; that answered one question and raised a few more, "maybe they want to keep me in here for three days, maybe it's a whole month. Like it won't be a problem unless—"

Straining to hear, Maddie's weight shifted onto the squeaky floorboard on the landing and she jerked back upwards as quickly as she could, some of the coffee sloshing out of the mugs at the sudden motion. It made more noise as it hit the stairs.

"Hey, I've gotta go. I'll talk to you, um, sometime soon."

Maddie stood there in silence for a moment. He had almost certainly heard her.

"...How long were you listening?"

Maddie sighed and stepped into view again. Phantom was back on the ground, arms crossed and looking straight at her with an uncertain, guarded expression.

"If I ask you what exactly you were talking about, would you answer me truthfully?"

Phantom opened his mouth but didn't respond. He looked even more like a fish out of water than normal. She shook her head and made her way over to the lab bench, setting down the coffees.

"Well, at least you didn't lie. Where did you get the phone?"

"Um... It's from..."

"Our living room, I know. Who gave it to you?"

"...Danny?"

It was a question, but she thought it sounded like the truth.

That answered one question and raised a few more.

She was still mulling that over when Phantom tried to change the subject, smiling nervously. "So, are you double-fisting coffee this morning?"

Maddie blinked, taken aback. "I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, uh, it's when you're at a party and you have two drinks at once." The ghost rubbed the back of his neck. It was an odd tic; human males did it when they were uncomfortable, but it was almost subconscious. How conscious was this mimicry? And now he looked very realistically uncomfortable at her staring at him. "Uh, and I... I noticed you have two cups of coffee today. It was another joke, sorry."

"Ah, the second cup is for you, actually." She frowned again. He looked surprised, wary even.

As she approached the door, he took a few cautious steps toward the opposite wall, without taking his eyes off of her.

They exchanged glances through the glass.

And the seconds ticked by.

As she reached for the door's exterior handle, she caught him flinch and she stayed her hand, returning to staring at him staring at her.

This was ridiculous. Logically, if he had actually wanted to escape, he would have the previous day, wouldn't he? Jack had left the door hanging wide open while he had been in the containment unit, and Phantom hadn't made any moves. So why was he tensed up against a wall, now? Had he... wanted to attack _her_ , but not Jack? No, that was unlikely, but...

Maddie took in Phantom's posture. Tensed, yes, but not to attack. Arms folded. Shoulders hunched. He was trying to make himself look smaller and guard his vital organs. Again, strange tics for a ghost, but it was a purely defensive stance.

He was afraid of her.

"Phantom, I'm... Going to open the door and set this coffee down. Is that all right?"

The green eyes blinked at her as if they needed a moment to process that she had spoken at all. His arms loosened a little and he nodded.

She nodded back and forced her eyes to look anywhere other than directly at him. In her experience, to avoid staring, 20 to 30 degrees to either side of the target was ideal to make people comfortable.

The door clicked open, the mug of coffee was deposited on the floor, and then the door clicked closed.

She returned to the lab bench without looking back and sat down in time to see Phantom unwind himself from the wall. He glanced from her to the coffee, before picking up the mug.

Maddie took a sip of her coffee, aware that she was still being watched. She tried not to make it obvious she was watching him back, although she wasn't sure she had necessarily succeeded; he was definitely evaluating the mug, _and_ evaluating her reactions to what he was doing. Did she seem too excited as he raised the mug to his mouth? Too disinterested? Too normal? It was hard to be sure, but she had never been more hyperaware of the shape of her spine or the shadows cast by her arms.

Jack's instinct proved correct. Phantom took a tentative sip of the coffee, scrunching up his nose shortly thereafter.

"Is something wrong with the coffee?"

His eyes snapped back to her and she supposed she'd lost any pretense that she hadn't been watching him. He didn't comment on that, probably spending a similar amount of effort as she was in appearing casual. As if they were really just here to talk about coffee. 'Hello Phantom, how's the weather?' and other such small-talk. At least now it was scientifically fruitful small-talk. "No, it's fine, I just usually take milk in my coffee."

She glanced at the lab fridge, where she knew there was something that either was (or at least had once been) milk. It wasn't something she would usually choose to subject guests to, and she supposed that included Phantom. Instead, Maddie shrugged. "Sorry. I can keep that in mind for next time."

He didn't comment but drank the coffee with gusto. Even if it wasn't to his taste.

...wait a moment, he knew that he took milk? Specifically milk, not cream. Did he drink a lot of coffee? Something nagged at the back of her memory, an unconscious connection, and before she was entirely aware of it, she was voicing the question.

"Why Danny?"

Phantom sputtered into the mug, spilling coffee on himself. He yelped as though burned and leaped out of the cot, spilling most of what remained on his chest. While he was frantically hopping around the containment unit and trying to brush it off himself, Maddie was halfway across the lab heading for the cleaning supplies; he must have realized what she was doing because he called after her. "Wait, wait, it's fine, I can just phase it off..."

"I still need to clean the containment unit floor."

"Right, of course, sorry..."

"It's no problem, just... Here." She unlocked the door again and started mopping as Phantom returned to his seated position, still holding the empty mug.

That was when she first realized where she was, and froze mid-swipe.

Maddie glanced down at Phantom, who was looking up at her with wide eyes, clenching the coffee mug with one hand and gripping onto the edge of the cot with the other. She very quickly finished the clean-up and left the small room, closing the door behind her. It sounded like he let out a breath when she did.

She stood for a moment outside the containment unit, holding a mop and still locked in a staring contest with the ghost for... Who knew how long. Eventually, Phantom blinked, shifting his gaze away from hers and standing carefully, gripping the mug with both hands as though to give them something to hold onto.

With the spell broken, she let the mop lean against the wall and returned to her seat at the lab bench.

The ghost cleared his throat and set down the mug on the ground. He was looking right at her now; or at least, _near_ her, but not at the floor anymore. "Sorry, again. You were... What were you asking?"

Oh, right. The question that had caused the strange reaction to start with.

Something told her it would be good to get this on tape for posterity. Her hand hovered over the record button; she breathed in and out, centering herself, and then began,

* * *

"File Alfa-Papa-1, tape 2, session 6; I was asking, why did Danny give you our cordless phone, to begin with?"

"...I uh, I guess I can see what you meant now. Sorry."

"It's quite all right, Phantom. What did you think I was asking, exactly?"

"I, uh, don't know what I thought. I guess it doesn't really matter, it was stupid... Um. So, Danny, I guess knew that I might want to call some of my... Human contacts. For, y'know, planning reasons. Ghosts fights and all that stuff."

"And so he brought you a phone."

"Exactly, yes."

"Even though he presumably knew we might object, he thought you should make the call personally rather than have him pass on a message?"

"What are you getting at exactly?"

"Phantom, that sounded more like a social call."

"Ok, maybe it was. Is that a problem?"

"...Phantom, are you..."

"...am I?"

"Are you 'friends' with my son Danny?"

"..."

"Phantom?"

"Is that what you think I am to him?"

"I'm not sure what to think, that's why I'm asking."

" _Man_... It _was_ stupid!"

"Pardon? Why is that funny? Is that not your true intent?"

"No, no, it's just that I thought you might have thought... Something worse about me. Us. Danny and me."

"So you _do_ consider him your friend. Him and his friends."

"Yeah. I do. He's, um... I know you probably think he's a massive flake, but honestly, he just tries really hard to keep the town safe. And during downtime we, uh, spend a lot of time with Sam and Tucker. It keeps all of us sane. Sam picks great movies, and she's just hilarious in this really weird kind of dark way. I guess Tucker is too, now that I think about it. Or maybe 'dark' is the wrong word but he always makes me laugh at stuff that really shouldn't be funny. We can talk about anything together. It's not a bad life, really."

"Whose 'life'? Danny's, or do you mean yourself?"

"Both, I guess. Maybe you don't really think of me as having a life, but I don't think I could have handled this past year without Sam and Tucker. It's just... Nice, I guess. Hunting ghosts and hanging out. And I don't know, I can just be myself around them. ...and Danny, too."

"It does, ah, certainly sound like you care for them."

"Yeah. I really do."

* * *

Danny didn't really think about what he'd said until he heard the tape machine winding down.

He was probably going to be grounded until he graduated college.

"Um, Maddie?"

His mom looked up at him. She had a pen and notebook in front of her, but she wasn't actually using either. "Yes, Phantom?"

"I hope... You won't be too hard on Danny about all of this. It's like I told Jack, he really, really didn't leap into all of this without thinking about it. And he's really good at ghost hunting. But if things ever got dangerous I'd made sure I was the one taking all the risks."

She shifted uncomfortably. Danny didn't really like the hesitation, but it was also better than some of the reactions he'd been worried about. "Phantom, I'm not going to pretend for a moment that I approve of... Any of that, actually. I'd much rather my son left ghost hunting to his parents, frankly."

Well damn.

"But—"

Danny was ridiculously glad to hear she had a 'but'. He must have shown it too, because his mom seemed surprised at his sudden change in mood, losing her sentence for a moment.

"—If being friends with humans is... Important to you. In terms of keeping you stable, that is. Mentally, I mean. That, could be something we examine."

"Thanks, Maddie!" At this point, he was pretty sure he had a 100-watt smile because almost immediately she was back to trying to establish boundaries. But he couldn't help it. At the moment, he was over the moon.

"I will need to ensure there are appropriate safety precautions, and of course this is all contingent upon you satisfactorily proving your trustworthiness, but yes; in the scenario where we permit you to continue... What you do, in Amity Park, perhaps human friendships should remain a component of that."

Danny realized he'd floated right up to the glass wall again. He landed with a click of boots on tile and tried to tone down his smile a bit. "Thank you. It would mean a lot to me. And I'll do my best not to disappoint you!"

"Well, then." His mom clearly just had no idea how to process his gratitude and stood up awkwardly for a moment before starting to walk toward the stairs. Halfway there, she stopped. "Ah, Phantom, would you like another coffee?"

" _Absolutely yes_."

He thought he caught the ghost of a smile on her face as she walked back towards the cell. "You drink a lot of coffee, do you?"

"About as much as I can get away with. It beats sleeping properly."

"Be mindful of your limitations, too much caffeine can be a false friend. I learned that during my undergraduate degree." She popped open the door to his cell and for once didn't act like a weirdo about it. It was refreshing. "You know, we actually weren't sure you would be able to make use of caffeine. It normally requires you to be..."

She froze up again. Oh good, back to normal. He'd almost gotten used to them getting along.

Danny leaned over and picked up the mug, handing it to her from a safe distance. She took it without comment but also didn't move to leave just yet.

Then an idea struck him. "You know, I think I've figured this out."

"Figured what out, exactly?"

"Maybe it would help to not think about me as a dead kid," she winced, but he continued. "Maybe you should think of me as more like a cool alien. I mean, I'm still... Pretty much alive, right? I sleep and eat and stuff. I just don't live the same way most humans do."

She tapped a finger against the mug, considering that for a moment, evaluating him carefully through her goggled eyes.

"You really are a very strange ghost, Phantom."

Again... He wasn't sure how to take that, not entirely anyway. But a grin came pretty naturally, to both of them.


	8. Chapter 8

Her brother continued to be an enigma.

A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a clunky reference to last year's history exam. She'd gotten an A+. She'd tried to help Danny study. He'd turned her down, of course.

Not "of course". That was expecting the worst. The fact that he had (since she realized he was Phantom and may need help maintaining his grades) turned down 89 separate offers for help didn't mean he wouldn't accept it next time. A shortcoming of hers- Rather, a pattern of behavior she had that she was aware of and working to improve, was moving from small suggestions that she was available for assistance whenever he needed it, towards being what could be considered... Overbearing. Depending on her own anxiety.

It wasn't a helpful behavior. It was rooted in a place of kindness, of course; Danny appeared to place great value on using his time in service of others, so in theory, he should respond well to acts of service in others. Helpful people react positively to helpful people, in other words. But there were boundaries, and perhaps crossing those did more damage than she was aware. It made sense, in a way, that he would try to keep her at a distance. He hadn't known for _months_ that she had known his secret. In reality, she had known he was Danny Phantom longer than she hadn't, if her theory as to the origin of his condition was accurate, ie. the portal incident.

But there was no way to know for certain. He hadn't brought it up. It wasn't as though she felt betrayed, he had every right to keep his own secrets, and she certainly wouldn't have been the one to press the issue.

...Would he have ever told her? Or was this always going to require some kind of catastrophe?

No, no, not a helpful thought. Hypothetical scenarios were a destructive form of unreality, especially when they were focused on the behavior of others rather than the self. The fact was, he had trusted her enough to bring her into his confidence in a time of need, and she was going to do her utmost to help him now that he was letting her. 90th time's the charm, as her father might say.

Jazz chuckled slightly at the thought and finally dropped the textbook she'd been unsuccessfully reading onto her bedside table. When she sat up on the edge of the bed she was hit with a sudden head rush and almost decided to just lie back down for a while longer. After Danny had left the previous night, she'd slept relatively little. The bottle of Zaleplon on her desk had tempted her briefly around 2 am, but drowsiness was a risk she couldn't afford right now. What if, what if, what if.

This really would be a lot easier if Danny would tell their parents.

Again, it was his secret to tell, but this could be all over in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks. Perhaps there was value in making their parents like Phantom as a person before they knew it was Danny, but he seemed to be chronically underestimating how accepting people would be of his... Full identity? (Perhaps that was the best way to describe it. Note to self, research preferred terminology for other teenage identity issues.)

She heard raised voices from the kitchen and sighed, slowly getting to her feet. The other distinct possibility is that Danny was using control over the knowledge of his identity to feel in control of his situation. She could hardly speculate, or perhaps she could only speculate, exactly how taxing his dual life really must be for him. Information control might be his way of achieving some degree of psychological safety when physical safety wasn't a given.

And people who felt suddenly out of control tended to lash out.

The words were perfectly clear as soon as she was in the hallway.

"—can't believe I said it, it's a ridiculous notion on the face of it!"

"It's not the worst idea you've ever had baby, I dunno what the issue is."

Jazz tip-toed across the hall and opened Danny's door just a crack. His bed was already empty. He must be downstairs. She shut it as silently as she could, and made her way to the railing overlooking the living room cautiously.

"The issue is that Phantom acts too human. It's impossible to be objective! He's one of the most powerful ghosts we've recorded and all he has to do is look frightened and the only thing I can see is..." Her mom paused for a moment. Another, more important note to self; find out what frightened Danny. Hopefully, it was nothing... Immediately threatening.

"Is what?" Dad was quiet, a tone of voice he rarely used in front of his children. When they argued in front of her and Danny, he was usually all bluster and ridiculous ideas. Sometimes it was hard to tell how much he genuinely believed and how much was meant to be a joke for their benefit. This was different; Jazz leaned over the railing a bit to hear them better.

"...all I can see is a teenager. And it's dangerous, Jack, you know that as well as I do. He could level the city if he felt like it."

"But he hasn't, Mads. That's what makes it a good idea. It's safer for everyone."

"Jack, you cannot honestly be telling me that you think Phantom's presence in our childrens' lives could be construed as _positive_ , can you?"

"Well, you said it yourself. Maybe having friends is stabilizing him. Think about it this way; out of all the times he's been spotted around people, how many do we know were negative?"

"Just the two, but—"

"Just hear me out here, that's only two out of a few dozen files, right? I've been thinking for a while that those might be anomalies, with an external cause, and—"

"You can't be serious. It's a ghost, Jack, their baseline is death and destruction. How could it be otherwise?" Oh, if only she knew. Did she talk like this around Danny...? Actually, silly question. She _definitely_ talked like that around Danny. Jazz frowned at the thought. It couldn't be good for his self-confidence.

Her dad had other ideas, anyway. "Maybe that cause was social! He fought with his friends. Fell out with them. Something like that. It's only a theory at this point, but my gut tells me that trying to take away his social network will do more harm than good, especially after how testy he got when I started asking him about it."

"I just... Can't conceive of any day where I would feel secure letting our children around that... That..."

"Mads, I don't think we've always got a choice. They're teenagers now. We've got to let them make their own decisions sometimes, don't we?"

They were both quiet for a while after that. Jazz made a point of stepping back to her bedroom door, and opening and closing it a little more loudly. She walked down the stairs like she was still half-asleep and affected a yawn as she reached the kitchen. It reeked of strong coffee. "Morning mom, morning dad."

They were both standing awkwardly near the sink.

"...busy morning?"

"We've been keeping... Occupied, yes," her mother said carefully.

Jazz tried to chuckle lightly. "Right, of course, chasing ghosts. I understand."

Mom and dad exchanged glances, which she pretended not to notice as she poured a bowl of cereal. Wordlessly, she sat back down at the table, and both her parents eventually drifted to it as well, not wanting to hover. There were already two plates of half-finished toast and congealing eggs; presumably, they'd started arguing over breakfast.

A thought struck her. She should really check in on Danny, and make sure he ate something down there. "That reminds me, are you guys still thinking about us taking that uh, big road trip next week?"

Blank looks in response. They'd definitely forgotten.

Dad recovered first. "Oh! _Right_. The road trip. Sorry Jazzypants, we've been so caught up in—"

"You aren't thinking about canceling it, are you? Um... Danny and I have been really looking forward to it."

He looked at mom deferentially. "Jazz, sweetie..."

"Come on, mom, we've only got so many summers to do trips like this!" Under any other circumstances, Jazz would have felt bad about digging into her mother's insecurities about her children growing up too fast. This was an exceptional case. "It would really mean a lot to both of us if we could spend time with you."

"Honey..." Mom bit her lip. Maybe just a bit further.

"Please? The ghosts will be here when you get back."

"Oh, fine." Mom actually smiled as she said it. "There's just one thing we need to do first—"

"Yes! And that's buy camping supplies! There's that tent sale on at RV Equipment Inc., right? And I think it ends today. Oh look at the time, the mall even just opened! I guess you'd better get going right away, huh? ...And maybe not be back for, say, two hours?"

"...of course, sweetie." The smile was a bit strained and she was getting a weird look from dad, but they didn't argue.

Jazz was beaming. _Mission accomplished._

* * *

"—change your mind, it's on the table."

"I mean, I'll definitely take the coffee. Did you add milk?"

"As if I'd forget that a second time."

"Hey, I already apologized for the pillow incident! And it was like 6 in the morning, I'm pretty much awake now."

"Good, it's almost noon. Are you sure you don't want the sandwich?"

"Nah, I'm good. I've been skipping lunches anyway."

"What? Didn't you tell them that you need to eat?!"

"No, but I don't get that hungry spending all day like this. It's a ghost thing I guess."

"Huh. Neat."

"...I still can't get over how ok with all of this you are."

"Hey, I've had plenty of time to come to terms with the fact that this might happen someday. It's turned out a little bit different from the actual plan I drew up, but—"

"Wait, you've planned for this?"

"Did you not? ...Nevermind, I forgot who I'm talking to. Yes, I put together a couple of contingency plans in the last few months. I thought it would be best to be prepared in case mom and dad were a bit less understanding."

"Ok, wow. Now I've gotta know, what's the craziest thing you planned for?"

"They're not 'crazy', they're prudent. When I realized Amity Park's best ghost hunters might actually catch Danny Phantom one day, I knew I should plan for anything. And given the circumstances..."

"Point taken. So in your highly professional opinion, what was the _least likely_ thing you planned for?"

"...ok, so, if they took you in the Fenton Blimp— Hey, don't make that face, I'm serious! What if they tried to... I don't know what I thought they would do, but what if they wanted to get away from Amity Park and still have access to lab equipment? They'd take the blimp."

"Thanks for thinking of me, I guess. Even if that would literally never happen in a million years."

"Happy to help. Somebody's got to do the planning around here, right?"

"..."

"..."

"...since Spectra, huh?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, her creepy little... The name started with a 'B', was it 'Butler Ghost'? When we were attacked at the pharmacy that time, remember you tried shoving me at your friends as a distraction?"

"Listen, I was under a _lot_ of pressure that week."

"Hey, I'm not complaining. You beat them in the end, right? But I saw you in the alley right before you fought off the Butler Ghost."

"And, what, your first response was to trust Danny Phantom?"

"My first response was to trust my brother. And Sam and Tucker have good judgment too, they would have told me if something was wrong with you."

"I thought you seemed a little, uh. Non-terrified, when you ran away from me later."

"Really? I thought I was a pretty good actor."

"...seriously?"

"Hey, you didn't figure out that I knew, did you? I even managed to keep mom and dad off your case. For the most part, anyway. But aside from the one slip-up with the Fenton Ghost Weasel, I kept a pretty tight lid on it ever since Spirit Week!"

"That's the thing! Spirit Week, that was in like, November. So you seriously knew about me almost the whole time?"

"I figured you'd talk when you were ready. That's still an open offer, by the way. You can talk to me about anything."

"Time and a place, Jazz."

"Right, I guess. ...But I worry you might be bottling up a lot of stress, with all the ghost fights on top of—"

"Are you kidding? Misplaced aggression is 90% of how I get through those fights."

"I'm being serious."

"You're _always_ being serious. That's your problem."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"We're teenagers! Even if you're 16 and 'practically an adult' or whatever. Don't you ever want to act like a kid again? What's with this rush to be all mature and stuff? Eventually, you're gonna _actually_ be an adult, and then..."

"...and then?"

"Don't you ever worry about college? And getting a job?"

"All the time. You don't think I study for fun, do you?"

"Come on, we both know you can get into any school you want. I'm surprised they haven't started sending out recruiters. But once you're there, you're an adult for real. You'll have responsibilities and stuff. You won't be able to, I dunno, hang out or go to a movie with friends, because you'll have to deal with... Everything. Taxes and junk I guess."

"'Taxes and junk'?"

"Whatever, I don't know what adults do all day."

"I don't feel like we're really talking about me going to college here."

"Huh?"

"I'm just saying. I'm not the only one who can't goof around all day, am I?"

"But with me it's different. I'm the only one who can protect Amity Park, I _have_ to do what I do. If I don't, people could actually... Get hurt."

"I'm the only one who can live my life, too. That's literally what life is. We've all got people who count on us. We all have struggles. Maybe they're not all the same, but maybe they're not all different, right?"

"...how do you make everything sound deep?"

"It's an older sibling skill."

"That's not a thing..."

"Pfft, ok, maybe not. But my point stands. Even if I'm not going through, uh, exactly what you're going through, you really can always talk to me about it. I don't mind listening. I even promise I won't try to solve all your problems."

"...ok, fine. _Maybe_. But on one condition."

"What's that?"

"Can you try to open up with me too? I don't always need a psychologist. Sometimes I just need a... Hey, is that thing running?"

"Wait, is it? Oh shoot, I clipped it with the plate—"

"Jazz, shut it off!"

"Which button turns it off?"

"Has it seriously been recording this whole time?"

" _Dang it_ , which one is rewind?!"

"We can figure that out in a second, just _stop it_ first!"

"...Danny, do you hear the RV?"

"Oh _f_ —"

* * *

The tent sale at RVEI had ended the previous week, and they had to pay $5 for parking at the upmarket mall downtown. Overall, Maddie's mood was soured toward camping by the time they had returned, but helpfully Jack had offered to organize all their camping supplies in the shed.

It gave her time to think.

She made a beeline for the lab instead.

There was a time for thought, and there was a time for action. She knew that. She and Jack exerted moderating influences on each other, Jack's drive to act counterbalancing her need/desire for planning. Perhaps it's useful to have somebody willing to shout "banzai" and smack the 'On' button, or you'll just build and tweak forever, without actually accomplishing anything.

Not that they were caricatures. Jack had proved as much lately, becoming more thoughtful about their approach, the exact opposite of the guns-blazing attitude he'd held toward their subject for most of the time they'd been observing him. But without his influence as a moderator, they'd spent 3 days politely talking to a ghost, and what had they learned? This had to stop, and apparently, it was going to fall on her to do that. She was going to go down there and tell Phantom—

Jazz was downstairs.

Maddie stopped abruptly on the landing. Jazz was walking between a lab bench and the containment unit holding a plate. Seeing Maddie enter, she stopped abruptly, the plate sliding out of her hand and landing on the floor in a clash of shattering ceramic, sending what looked for all the world like a corned beef sandwich tumbling into its component pieces across the tile.

"We're back—"

"NOTHING."

Maddie frowned and Jazz blushed heavily. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Phantom float to the far end of the containment unit, looking between the two of them. They were clearly up to more than 'Nothing'. She sighed.

"Jasmine Fenton, what are you doing down in the lab? You know it's not safe down here."

Annoyingly, Jazz looked toward Phantom before replying. His slight shrugging gesture wasn't lost on her.

"I um... I wanted to talk to Phantom about his... Psychological welfare."

That made logical sense. Jazz had always taken more of an interest in (what she termed) exopsychology than any other aspect of their ghost research. Of course, she wouldn't pass up a chance to actually evaluate Phantom given the circumstances.

But she also wasn't one to hesitate when talking about her areas of interest.

"I see. And the plate...?"

"Oh, that, I brought lunch for Phantom. I wasn't sure if ghosts ate or not." A chuckle. A little too short, a little too high pitched.

"Of course. I'll clean this up sweetie, why don't you head upstairs?"

One more glance at Phantom. Their eyes met for a moment. What were they communicating in that look? And then they looked back at her. "Sure thing mom, sorry about the mess." Ten steps to the top. She'd taken the stairs two at a time.

Maddie busied herself cleaning up the mess, emptying the dustpan into the container for organic waste by her lab bench. The tape in the machine was getting low. Odd.

In the containment unit, Phantom was still pressed into a corner. It– He hadn't said a word since she'd entered the basement.

And he was holding another cup of coffee.

"...I hope you keep in mind what we talked about, Phantom."

"...What's that?"

Maddie set the broom and dustpan down, leveling a gaze at him. He shrank back further into the corner.

"Trust is a two-way street."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote most of this while dealing with writer's block on "The Dead of Winter"; it was then I realized I should probably cross-post this story to AO3, so here we are, all caught up to FF.net


	9. Chapter 9

Once Jack was done with it, the shed was much less of a mess. That was one thing.

Not that it was completely organized, but he'd be digging through it again next week anyway for their road trip, so in a way, it made sense to do the real clean up when they got back. That was the only reason he hadn't done it already.

Or gotten Danny to do it.

But it was _noticeably_ better, and it was important to count the small victories. Especially when the situation inside the house was... Well.

No sooner had he came in the back door than Jazz had come sprinting out of the basement, slamming the door open so hard it bounced shut behind her, and completely ignoring his attempt at a greeting. He could shrug that off though, both his kids did tend to spend a lot of time sprinting around the house. He was proud that they took the initiative to get where they were going, that was important in life. When he was their age, he'd been a very effective walker. When Jack Fenton started walking to class, _Jack Fenton walked to class_.

It was how he'd known Maddie was the one for him. During their undergrad, she had the most beautiful, efficient walk he'd ever seen in a woman. As soon as he caught up, he asked her out, and she'd said no. When he clarified that he meant on a date, she said yes, and they'd been inseparable ever since.

Jazz and Danny would be alright, in other words. They'd go far in life. Literally!

...What was he doing?

Right, lunch.

He'd gotten halfway through making a reuben when the door to the lab crashed open again and Maddie came charging out, less efficiently than usual; she _was_ lugging around their reel to reel tape recorder, and for a "portable" machine that thing had to weigh 30 pounds. But she looked more upset than carting around aging consumer electronics would normally make her.

Jack set the spoon back in the sauerkraut jar. "Everything ok down there, Mads?"

"No!" She set down the tape machine with a dull thud and made a furious strangling motion with her hands before regaining control of herself. " _Phantom_ ," and she was back to saying the ghost kid's name like he'd broken her favorite microscope, or forced her to pay for parking. "Will not stop _looking_ at me!"

"Looking at you? Looking at you how?"

"Looking at me like he's _terrified_ of me!" To illustrate what she meant, she made a very violent ripping motion with one hand, before putting her hands on her hips and stalking across the kitchen. "I can't concentrate on transcribing this tape when he's looking up at me like he's expecting me to shoot him any second!"

He couldn't help but chuckle a bit. She glowered at him as he went back to reuben assembly. "You're a force of nature, baby. Can't blame him for noticing."

"I've been bending over backward to be kind to that monstrosity! I even offered to let it continue associating with humans! What on earth do I have to do to put it at ease so we can just..."

The sentence fizzles out as he dropped a final slice of marbled rye on the pile and transferred it to a waiting pan. He glanced back at her when it started to sizzle. "You're not talking again. Just what?"

She threw up her hands and sank into a chair at the table. "Just finish this charade, where we pretend that 'good ghosts' exist and placate our children until it becomes obvious to them that we were right all along."

"Is that so?"

"There's only one way this ends."

"With us running Phantom out of town?"

"He's the one threatening us, Jack, it's hardly 'running out of town'."

He took a chair opposite her at the table. Her gaze had drifted back toward the lab door, but she looked his way as he sat down. Her expression dropped further when she saw how he was looking back at her.

"You can't be serious."

"I'm real serious, Mads. We said we were going to go at this thing and shake it down no matter what came out of it. I'm still shaking."

She stood up fast enough to send the chair skidding backward a few inches. "This isn't theoretical, Jack. We are not in a research ethics seminar. We are adults, and there is a ghost in our basement threatening our home and our family. When you're ready to rejoin me in our life's work, I will be upstairs transcribing this audio. And your sandwich is burning."

He spun around in his seat to see wisps of smoke coming out of the pan. With a curse, he got up and attempted to flip the reuben, but it was beyond salvaging.

Maddie had left the room and taken the tape recorder with her. He flipped the burner off and scraped the mess into the garbage, leaving the pan in the sink.

Well, that made _two_ members of his family that were avoiding him, and Jazz hadn't been in any hurry to stop and chat either.

But he was down, not out. You can lose a battle and still win the war. And he knew just where to start the advance.

Jack opened the door to the lab and descended the stairs. He still had no idea what the ghost kid's boundaries were, but maybe if he could extend an olive branch, that would be enough to get back on speaking terms. And the truth was, despite his being a ghost and all, Jack was honestly a little worried to hear he was looking terrified down there.

He'd meant what he said. Maddie could be a formidable woman. But if Phantom was just floating there doing nothing to deserve it, he didn't want the ghost to feel afraid for his afterlife. Not when it wasn't necessary, anyway. And besides...

Well, besides that, there was something about how Phantom talked to him that made him want to trust the ghost. He'd done it once before, when they were pinned down by the Wisconsin Ghost, and that call had saved the day.

And now, Phantom had shown both him and Mads a lot of vulnerability where they'd expected hostility, and it didn't seem like he thought they'd use any of it against him. That was the most confusing part, it was like he already trusted them more than he had a reason to. You don't show your belly when you expect a bayonet.

And so when he stopped on the landing and saw Phantom sitting curled up in a corner of his containment unit, Jack wanted to make it right. No bayonets.

"Phantom?"

The ghost looked over at him, pivoting his head from its resting position on his knees, but didn't get up either. There was no way he hadn't heard Jack coming down the stairs, not with that supernatural hearing; was he waiting to see how Jack wanted to play this?

"You doing ok down here?"

"Peachy, thanks for asking."

He should have expected sarcasm by now. Still sounded weird coming from a ghost.

"Any chance you want to help me with something?"

Phantom's head shot up, eyes wide. "You don't mean...?" Those glowing green eyes darted to the dissection table and back to him.

Probably shoulda been more specific. "No, nothing like that! We're just talking, remember?" That didn't seem to relax the ghost too much, so Jack took the almost unprecedented step of unclipping his utility belt. The weapons and equipment hanging off it jangled as he descended the last few steps. They made a heavy clunk when he set it down on a far-away counter.

It was the most disarmed he'd felt in months. Literally, he wore that belt into the shower.

The ghost kid took notice, too. He finally loosened up a little bit while Jack made his way over to the lab bench where he and Mads usually did their interviewing.

"You... Aren't you going to want to have a gun handy?"

"Nope. Like I said, just talking."

His eyes flicked to the empty spot on the lab bench. "You don't have the tape recorder," he noted.

"We don't need to record everything, do we? Besides, I don't really have any questions for you."

Well, the ghost kid sure wasn't worried anymore. He mostly just looked confused. "Then why do you want to talk?"

"I dunno. It's been interesting talking to you, I think anyway. What about you?"

"Definitely interesting. I, um... Jack, about last time, I didn't mean—"

Jack waved it off. "Water over the bridge. It was early to be pouncing on you with big questions. My wife and son are the same way, not morning people by a long shot. Guess you probably know that about Danny."

Phantom clammed right up. Should he have let him finish the apology? Was that a ghost thing? There was a bit of an awkward silence where they just looked at each other before it became real clear Jack was gonna have to be the first one to talk.

"So what do you think?"

"...sorry, about what?"

"About you helping me out."

"Um... With what?"

"With _this_." Jack pulled open one of the drawers on the lab bench. Phantom winced until he saw the black and white checkered board.

"Oh, chess? I don't really think I'm qualified. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that I'm no Gary Kasparov."

"You and me both. Do you know checkers?"

"Sure, it's just easier chess, right?"

Typical reaction for the uninitiated, but Jack could work with that. "It's not easier, it's a whole different game. If you can't do chess, maybe this'll click better for you. That's how it was with me."

"I guess. So um... Am I playing from in here?"

Jack looked at the containment unit. Solid glass with a phase-proof field around it. That'd make things pretty difficult, actually. That was easily fixed though; he hopped off the stool and made his way to the door on the side. Phantom clambered to his feet, looking confused.

"Can I trust you not to fly away?"

Phantom nodded.

"Ok then." He opened the door.

"...just like that?" Phantom asked.

"Just like that," he replied, grinning.

He stepped aside, letting Phantom walk out into the lab. He stood just outside the door, eyes darting around at the racks full of ghost hunting equipment, probably feeling a little overwhelmed.

Jack made his way back to the bench, pulling up a stool for Phantom and patting it. The ghost finally made his way over and took a seat. Jack sat opposite and started setting up the red pieces. When Phantom made no motion to do so, he set up the black pieces too.

"Black starts."

Phantom tentatively reached out a gloved hand and moved a piece. "So uh... How's this helping?"

Jack countered his opening move with his own. "There's a tournament coming up in Toledo." Phantom captured his piece. Jack captured his right back. "Gotta get some practice in if I'm gonna go toe to toe with the pros."

They traded back and forth for a while. Phantom played an aggressive game, greedily taking pieces, leaving himself exposed in the process. He left a flank open and Jack captured 3 of his pieces in one move, prompting a frown. "Dang. Didn't see that."

"Don't worry about it, you're doing good for a rookie. I've probably got a decade of practice on you. Wanna try again?"

Phantom looked up at him over the board. Jack could just about see the wheels turning behind his eyes, and the ghost kid nodded. "Sure. I think I know what to do now."

He didn't. Phantom lost the next game spectacularly.

"Don't worry about the sides too much ghost kid, you want to control the center of the board if you can."

"That's what I was... Ok."

Phantom started the next round with a center piece. "They call that move 'Old Faithful'." Jack moved a piece in from the side, leaving the center a little more open than he normally would. "So you've played chess before, have you?"

"Yeah, badly." Phantom forced out a chuckle while he moved a piece up behind his opener. "One of the ghosts I fight, he thinks everything is a chess game."

"Sounds like an old buddy of mine. Always trying to think five moves ahead, right?"

Phantom looked at him kind of funny, just for a second, then stared hard at the board. "Yeah, something like that. In my defense, he hasn't really won yet, but it feels like he's always got the upper hand."

"Want some advice?"

"'Control the center'?"

"Don't play his game. That buddy of mine, he could whip me at any normal game of chess we played, but when it came to speed chess it was easy to throw him off balance. When you're up against a planner, just try and hit 'em before they can think things through. That's their Achilles' tendon."

Jack thought he caught a hint of a smile on Phantom's face. ...although it might've been because he captured a few of Jack's pieces, right down the center. "Thanks for the advice, I might try that. Oh, uh, king me."

"Sure." Jack placed a captured piece on Phantom's newly minted king, then made a devastating move of his own. "King me."

Phantom did so.

The board was a scattered mess, but most of the pieces were out of the way now. It could go just about anywhere from here. Jack stroked his chin, thinking. "Hmm. Not sure about this one. How about we call it a draw? I want to show you some more openings anyway."

He held a hand across the board. Phantom shook it with a smile.

* * *

**Community Exposure Files**

**File Number:** Fenton-157

 **Ghost reference(s):** AP01, AKA "Phantom"

 **Human(s) affected:** Jasmine Fenton

 **Date:** 2005-08-09

 **Time:** ~12:00 pm

 **Casualties:** 0

 **Notes:** Ghost AP01 "Phantom" recorded in conversation with Jasmine Fenton. Both participants were unaware of any audio recording in progress for the first 5 minutes, 3 seconds. Phantom clearly distraught upon realizing the conversation was being recorded. The complexity of the recording equipment was noted as the primary reason why the recording survived the encounter, despite both participants' desire for its erasure.

This audio recording acts as our first definitive proof of long-term contact between Phantom and Jasmine Fenton. The two appear to be very familiar with each other. From their description of their first meeting (referencing ecto-entities AP08 aka "Spectra" and AP08b aka "Bertrand"), they have likely been consistently in contact for over 9 months.

There is little sign that Jasmine withholds any information from Phantom. When prompted, she freely disclosed her insecurities regarding her academic performance and future career prospects to Phantom. Phantom seemed highly interested in hearing other weaknesses directly from Jasmine herself in the future. She believes this to be a two-way relationship, as a pair of humans might confide in each other.

It is also clear that Jasmine Fenton has been aiding Phantom in evading Fentonworks ghost tracking activity and research. This goes some way to explaining certain equipment disappearances and malfunctions. However, it is highly unlikely Jasmine is acting alone.

 **Recommendations:** Question Jasmine Fenton about her involvement in subverting Fentonworks activities on behalf of the entity AP01. Question Daniel Fenton about his possible involvement in the same.

* * *

Maddie was seething in the emergency operations center.

The interviews she and Jack had recorded on the tape earlier that morning were much what she had expected. But particularly after how short her interview had been, she had been right to think the tape looked a little low.

She had to listen to the extra audio five times. Once in utter disbelief, a few more in anger and confusion, and finally one last time to actually take the notes.

If Jazz hadn't triggered the recording mechanism, they might have never found out the depth of their children's involvement with Phantom.

They (Maddie) had certainly expected it went deeper than they had been able to prove, but this was beyond the pale. Finding out that your child had been actively working against you, aiding a dangerous ecto-entity... That was worse than they could have ever anticipated. Some form of mind control might have been at play here. Surely that was the only explanation, wasn't it? What on earth else could have so divorced Jazz from her senses?

There was also the possible manner of Danny's involvement, but that would have to wait.

Maddie checked her watch. It was hardly 5 o'clock now. Based on what Jack had said he probably wouldn't be home until curfew at 11. Optimistically.

In the meantime, she couldn't ignore what she did know. And looking over to the equipment rack, she knew just where to start.

She held it behind her back when she knocked on her daughter's door, her expression cool and detached. No sense betraying quite how upset she was if Phantom was able to either access Jazz's memories or even see through her eyes via possession.

Jazz didn't look surprised to see her there. Mostly just worried. "Hi, mom."

"Afternoon sweetie. Can we talk?" She tried to smile, but not too much. Disappointed, but still happy to be talking, that was the balance to strike.

The expression had to be perfect, because Jazz was analyzing her. When she was invested in a conversation, her daughter's eyes rarely stopped moving. They darted back and forth over faces taking in every nuance, watching for the tiniest twitches of emotion. It was reassuring to see that now. Perhaps Jazz was fully in control of her faculties.

Eventually, she replied. "Sure thing mom." But she didn't walk back from the doorframe.

Maddie frowned before she could stop herself. This would be easier _inside_ the room where there was more space. "I'm here about—"

"Danny Phantom, yeah. I figured."

"Jazz—"

"He isn't evil, mom."

She couldn't afford to get angry. She settled for 'exasperated'. "It's a ghost, sweetie, they have no concept of human morality. And right now, I need to know how much it's been influencing you and your brother to suit its needs."

Jazz crossed her arms across her chest. "How can we have a productive conversation when you don't trust what I say?"

"Like this." She braced her left hand on Jazz's shoulder before she could pull away, and flung the specter deflector around her waist with the other. She had the two ends clicked neatly together before Jazz had a chance to react, although she did pull back and stumble into the room.

"Mom! What is this thing supposed to do?"

Maddie followed her in. "It's the Fenton Specter Deflector. It weakens ghosts, including any influence they may have over your mind. It's the only way—"

"That you can trust your children? Well fine, allow me to reiterate. Danny Phantom isn't evil. He wants to help our town. And yes, Danny and I help him do that, and yes, sometimes that means ignoring what you and dad have to say about ghosts. But you've never given us much choice."

She looked angry, but she didn't make any motion to remove the belt. Nor did it appear that it was currently... Doing anything. Had she really been unaffected the whole time? Was that honestly what she thought?

...she must have betrayed too much in her expression because Jazz actually scoffed. "Is it so impossible to believe that there may be one thing you've been wrong about? There's a sentient being in your basement, locked up, and he's terrified. It's the kind of thing that would scar a human for life. If you care about protecting people from Phantom, I would suggest starting with how you and dad are treating him."

Jazz sat back at her desk, her back to the door. But this conversation was far from over. "Jasmine, you are grounded. We can discuss the particulars later, once it becomes clear exactly how much damage you've done." Maddie paused until her daughter at least looked at her. It came in the form of a deep exhale and a glance over the shoulder before she returned to whatever homework she was doing. "There is also the matter of your brother. You need to tell me exactly what his involvement with Phantom is, right now."

She waited expectantly. To her daughter's credit, she held out a remarkably long time before finally turned to face her again.

Jazz looked... Surprisingly somber.

"That's between you, Danny, and Phantom. He's not in danger, so it's not my story to tell."

Maddie didn't want to give her daughter the last word, but she also didn't want to create the appearance of needing the last word. She simply closed the door behind her and resolved to wait as long as it took for her son to come home. They had a lot to talk about.

But 11 o'clock came and went. Danny never came home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoy Jack giving fatherly advice to Phantom without realizing it's his actual kid. That really needs to be its own spinoff.


	10. Chapter 10

It was about half-past midnight. 12:37. AM. Danny still wasn't home.

It would do no good to try this while she was angry, so Maddie chose not to be angry. An easy switch to make. Just separate the situation from the emotions. Try a breathing exercise. _Then_ she'd go down there and—

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Very calm. As calm as that smug... Using, threatening _her children—_

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Think of a river. Flowing over smooth stones, lapping at the shore. The soft rustle and burble of the water. Calm, blue water.

It may well be a coincidence that Danny was missing the night she had wanted to talk to him about his involvement with the ghost. To get him to see the error of his ways, so she could stop pretending that _that_ —

Not angry. Breathe in. Breathe out. Danny wanted her to try talking to Phantom. Jack thought it required a more human approach. Jazz told her it was Phantom's story to tell.

Fine. The people she was trying to protect thought she was being unreasonable, she would show them otherwise. She was going to talk to Phantom. _Calmly_.

She threw open the door to the lab and calmly walked down the stairs, gripping the banister tightly in one hand and hefting the tape recorder along in the other. The squeaky floorboard on the landing croaked in protest as she passed, cutting a determined line across the lab; out of the corner of her eye, she saw Phantom hurriedly sitting up on the cot, setting down one of Jack's science fiction magazines. She glanced at him as she went and saw a spike of fear in his eyes. Completely unwarranted fear. She was just here to talk.

Jack was hovering over a workbench on the far side of the lab, soldering iron in hand. When he caught her eye he set it down in its holder and walked over. "Maddie, I didn't know you were still awake."

"I am, yes. I would have found it very difficult to sleep, considering our son is currently missing. _Again_." She gave Phantom another accusatory glance before hefting the tape recorder up onto the lab bench she had been keeping it on. The remnants of a checkers game sat cold on the far end of the surface. Jack never played alone.

She pushed that far to the back of her mind and remained calm. She plugged in the pair of microphones and the power cord and flipped the switch. The machine powered up just fine, the needles on the VU meters jumping a little. When she looked up, Jack and the ghost were exchanging a look.

"What?"

"Mads, it's real late. Maybe we should call it a night and turn in?"

"This cannot wait until morning, Jack. I had hoped to discuss this with our son first, but it appears he isn't going to be coming home tonight. I wonder why that is." She cast a withering glance at Phantom in his containment unit. The ghost looked like he had been scalded, and for a moment she regretted it. Then it prickled at her nerves. He was doing this on purpose.

"I'm sure Phantom had nothing to do with Danny not showing up tonight," Jack began. The ghost's flinch said otherwise. "Probably didn't want to talk about the birds and the bees again. Or maybe he's having a sleepover! You know he's always staying over at his little friends' houses. He musta just forgot to call home. He'll be here tomorrow morning, I bet you anything."

"I might have believed that if I hadn't found out that Jasmine has been sabotaging our operations to help that ghost."

Jack looked taken aback. Finally. "What? Is that true ghost kid?"

From his little cot, the ghost nodded, but he wouldn't make eye contact with Jack. "She... She's been trying to help me not get captured. For a couple of months now, I guess."

Maddie scoffed. "That's only what we know of. I can hardly imagine what else we don't. I also suspect Danny may have been involved in this subterfuge, Phantom nearly admitted as much earlier. I just didn't see it for what it was at the time. I wasn't being _impartial_."

"Come on sweet pea, knowing what we know now, that makes a lot of sense! I wouldn't want us to have captured Phantom any earlier. Not before we gave him a real chance."

"Are you hearing yourself? He's a ghost, Jack! If it had a real chance, it would..." There were a lot of things it could have done. Should have done. He could have... Well, all those times they gave him an opening, to escape, or, to attack them, and he didn't... He must have been plotting. The ghost was clearly a strategist.

"Phantom's not gonna hurt anyone. He had plenty of chances to get the drop on me today. I was unarmed. We played checkers. Nothing happened."

"He's playing a long game, Jack!"

Her husband had the nerve to laugh. "He couldn't play a long game to save his afterlife." Phantom had the nerve to look annoyed at the slight before he caught her looking at him.

"Then why does it have to be _our children_?"

There was silence in the room for a moment. She hadn't meant to shout. Calm. Think of water. Breathe in, breathe out. Re-holster the ectogun.

Jack was staring at her. "Explain it to me. What about our kids?"

She continued in an even, calm tone. "It makes perfect sense, Jack. They are the children of ghost hunters. They would be the perfect leverage over us. Or why else would Amity Park's most prolific villain choose to associate with _them_? Why is it our Jazz who has to keep secrets for a high-level ectoplasmic entity? Why is it our Danny who is probably outside, right now, hunting down Phantom's enemies? Why our kids?"

"Baby, they're—"

"No, Jack. I want to hear it from him." She pointed an accusatory finger at Phantom. The ghost's eyes were darting between the two of them, lingering just a little bit more on Jack, but never losing sight of her or her hands for very long. Maddie placed them very carefully on the counter. "If I'm wrong, I want to hear it from you."

The ghost's hand found its way to the back of his neck again. "I don't know what to tell you. They're just my friends, Maddie."

"Why would you need friends? Why would they need to be human? _These_ humans, specifically?"

"How am I supposed to explain that to you? We get along. They don't run screaming from me. Even when things go bad they stick with me. They're free to do whatever they want and they stick with me, just like I stick with them. That's all this is."

"But why? Why are you seeking out humans in the first place?"

"I barely even tried! At first, I wanted them to keep their distance, but they wouldn't let me. And I'm glad they didn't."

"What are you gaining out of this?"

"I couldn't... I wouldn't be who I am without them. Nobody can be alone forever. I needed them as much as they need me."

"Am I to believe that it's a complete coincidence that the son and daughter of ghost hunters, along with their human friends, all voluntarily spend their free time with a ghost? Lying to their parents," Phantom winced again, "putting themselves in harm's way, running around town when they should be studying?"

"I didn't say it was a coincidence. They know what a ghost running rampant can do, so of course they want to help. I'm just trying to say I'm not like, orchestrating all of this. I didn't want any of this to happen."

"And the fact that they are only _accidentally_ being put in danger is supposed to make it better?"

"I'm not putting them in danger! They'd be out there doing what they're doing even if I wasn't around. They know the stakes. After everything that happened two weeks ago, we all do. At least when I'm around I can try to keep them safe."

"Well, since you bring it up, where _were_ you that day anyway? When Danny and his friend Valerie showed up outside the school covered in bruises? In fact—"

* * *

"File Alfa-Papa-1, tape 2, session 7. This is Dr. Fenton. Phantom is just about to explain where he was when the humans he claims are his friends were being attacked by an incursion of violent ghosts."

"I was... Around! A lot was going on that day!"

"But if you are the protector you claim to be, surely your obsession with playing the hero would dictate your chosen humans would come first."

"I was held up by Vlad Plasmius; 'The Wisconsin Ghost'."

"You reportedly fought him multiple times during the incursion. Do you mean to say that with your town being invaded, the whereabouts of your 'friends' utterly unknown to you, you chose to fight another ghost? Ignoring all the responsibilities you claim you've taken on?"

"I'm not _perfect_ , ok? Maybe I made a bad call. I don't know. He gets under my skin sometimes. I was busy trying to figure out what his stupid game was, there was no time to track down every single ghost that came through."

"You certainly didn't hold back against the skeleton army."

"No, I mean before the _actual invasion_. Before I figured out what was going on. I was just as in the dark as anyone, I had to track down... Not even 'acquaintances', literally, it was a group of my worst enemies. But after they beat the tar out of me, yeah, I got them talking and they told me what was going on in the Ghost Zone."

"So you had advanced warning of the invasion?"

"Maddie, I had no idea what was coming. You know what I did know? There was an ancient ghost that had just been woken up, and A, he was extremely powerful, B, it had taken a whole bunch of ghosts to beat him last time, and C, he was very, very angry about that."

"You mean you'd never heard of Pariah Dark."

"No, they made it sound like he was like a million years old or whatever. They never covered that in history class."

"Spare me. So why didn't you try to stop him from taking over 'your haunt'?"

"Ok, not 'my haunt', just the town I live in. And I did try. To cut a long story short he wasn't at full power without this magic ring. The ghosts called it the 'Ring of Rage'. And going on what they told me about the first time he'd been beaten, I figured I needed to try to fight him before he got it because he'd be just about unstoppable once he did. And I'd need help."

"Surely a gang of untrained teenagers would be of little use against an ancient, powerful ghost."

"No, no, of course not. That's kind of the whole problem I had. I'm sorry that people got hurt, but I didn't want to be anywhere near my friends during this. That would just paint a huge target on them. This time I really had to keep them out of it. Just keep it to ghosts fighting ghosts."

"Other ghosts would have no reason to assist you, either. Ghosts are naturally selfish."

"Their homes were under threat too, you know. Even if they were in the Ghost Zone. But this was threatening both their world and ours, and I don't think any of them wanted... You know, to _destroy_ Amity Park. At their worst, I think they want to rule it, not raze it. So yeah, I told them that I needed their help to take the fight to the enemy. I knew it'd be dangerous and I told them so. I even said, y'know, there was no guarantee we'd survive this."

"That can't possibly have worked out."

"Yeah, they laughed at me."

"So while you were cavorting with ghosts and getting nowhere, you just left your 'friends' undefended."

"They weren't undefended anymore, they were inside the ghost shield by then."

"Except for Danny. Our college friend found him unconscious outside the ghost shield."

"Like I said, I couldn't be anywhere near him. I wouldn't have drawn him out from safety. What could Danny Fenton do against a ghost king? _That_ was entirely Plasmius's fault. The whole thing was his fault actually. I think he wanted the power or something, that's usually his end goal when he pulls stunts like this. They usually just don't backfire quite so badly. I don't think he expected that Pariah Dark was still alive, or that he'd wake up when Plasmius stole the Ring of Rage from him."

"Excuse me if it seems a bit rich for you to complain about ghosts stealing from others when you stole our prototype ecto-skeleton."

"That was to stop anyone else from using it! You were all lining up to jump in even though you knew it was probably lethal for a human. Did you think I was just going to float around while you tried to die? The only reason I gave away Valerie's secret to her dad was so she wouldn't get in the stupid thing herself. I probably would have kept her secret otherwise, but she was just charging in with some kind of death wish. Leave that to the undead kid."

"You aren't saying you actually _used_ it, are you?"

"Yeah, I did. How else did you think I fought off Pariah's army?"

"But that prototype _would_ have been lethal. I've been going over the schematics, the power draw really was almost entirely uncontrolled. We said as much at the time. You knew that getting into it might have ended your existence."

"...that's not a question."

"But, why would you do that?"

"If you don't want to believe anything else I say, please, believe that at that moment, I was thinking of my friends. My home. I didn't want anybody else to get hurt, and I knew that if I didn't... If it wasn't..."

"Phantom, I—"

"It had to be me, is what I'm saying. It had to. This is all I've got. My friends and Amity Park. If they were gone I don't think I could carry on anyway. Oh, and besides, you know how much power there is in ectoplasm versus a normal human, right? I had the best odds out of anyone to actually fight off the ghost king before it killed me. 'Ended my existence', whatever.

It was still a tough fight, too. Even at 100%, that suit took a beating. This was after Pariah Dark had managed to get his stupid ring, and there were _a lot_ of those skeletons. They'd overrun the town and most of the area around Pariah's keep. I just kept charging after them, and they just kept piling on and on and on, and...

You know, in the end, it was actually those selfish ghosts. My worst enemies. I don't know what made them see reason in the end, but honestly, even with the ecto-skeleton, I would have been screwed if they didn't swoop in to help clear a path. Maybe that's the moral here. It's like, yeah, they're selfish, and yeah, I'm constantly sending them back to the ghost zone, but even they have some kind of limits, you know? There's some boundaries that they aren't willing to see crossed. Or maybe you're right. Maybe it really was just self-preservation, and at that moment helping me _was_ the best way to be selfish. I guess I don't like to think of it that way. It seems too... Black and white. And now that I've seen real evil, I don't think they come close. They're just... What they are.

So anyway, they were able to get me in there. With their help, the suit kept me safe long enough to—"

* * *

In the silence that followed, Danny noticed the tape machine making a strange sound. He straightened up on the cot and looked over at it; it had run out of tape at some point. One reel was still spinning, the loose edge of the tape hitting against a piece of the mechanism with a soft _fwip fwip fwip_.

Mom hadn't even asked what had happened to the ecto-skeleton.

Which was good, because two weeks later, he still had no idea. But looking at her, it might have been less because of a lack of curiosity, and more because she seemed to be in shock. The pen was loose in her grip. Her shoulders were hunched over. She wasn't even really looking at him.

Come to think of it, she hadn't said anything for a really long time.

He leaned forward a bit on the cot so that he was sure she could see him. "Maddie? Are you ok?"

She was shaking. Crud.

"Hey, uh, Jack?" He stood and looked around the lab to find his dad. It was still weird calling him Jack. It was weirder to see him sitting in an equal state of shock at the workbench against the wall. "Jack!"

His dad blinked a few times and then looked at him for real. "Phantom, that was..."

"Hey, don't worry about me, what's up with Maddie? Is she ok?" He pointed a thumb at her on the stool, still looking at the far wall with a thousand-yard stare.

Dad didn't follow immediately, but eventually blinked back to awareness and swore. "Mads!" He was over to her in a few strides and gave her a little shake on the shoulder. "You ok?"

His mom made a strange, strangled gasp at the contact, and clutched at his arm, nearly falling off the stool. She looked around wildly, and then with a jolt, she was back. "I, yes, sorry, I got a bit lost in my thoughts there..." No kidding. "Ah, Phantom..."

He stiffened reflexively. Her saying his name that carefully hadn't been working out great for him lately. "Maddie, I swear, I'm telling the truth. I really was just trying to protect the town. And I know you don't always want me around, and you don't want me around your kids, but you've got to believe—"

"Phantom, what you did was very... Brave."

"...huh?" He stopped pacing. He'd started pacing at some point. ...He was going to end up as melodramatic as Vlad at this rate. But what was that supposed to mean? Did she think he was trying to act like some kind of superhero to pull one over on the town?

She seemed to guess what he was thinking. "I mean it. And I... Believe you. At least, about the Pariah Dark incident, there are those other unexplained—"

"Mads, now's not the time," his dad suggested gently.

"And I've been calling it the 'Reign Storm'." The joke slipped out of his mouth before Danny could stop it. It was like a reflex.

She almost, _almost_ looked like she got it, but that happened while she was looking very alarmed. It made for a weird conjoined expression. "...of course. What I'm attempting to say is that... I owe you an apology. You didn't deserve these aspersions I've been casting on you."

He had no idea what that meant but it was clear enough from context. He allowed himself a small, careful smile. She didn't try to take back what she'd just said when he did, and he smiled a little more. "You really mean it?"

"I really mean it. And, about what I said earlier this morning. If human contact is important to you..." There was a very long pause.

Danny's smile dropped a bit. "I get it. You still don't want me to see or talk to your kids or their friends. It's fine, I get—"

"No, no, what I'm trying to do is... They are their own individuals. I can't control the company they keep. If they want to... Help you, with ghost hunting, we can certainly discuss that. I want to know that every precaution is being taken for their safety, of course. And outside of dangerous activities, I won't attempt to interfere with your... Friendship."

It sounded like multiple words there were still pretty uncomfortable for his mom to say, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He was over the moon.

"Oh man, you don't know how much that means to me to hear from you!" He may have done a flip, he was hardly paying attention. "Thanks, Maddie! Jeez, I don't even know what to say."

He thought he caught a hint of a smile on her face. His dad was beaming at her side, but at least she wasn't trying to backtrack anymore. "Well, there are a few details we'll need to work out about our arrangement. Precautionary measures. But we can go over that in the morning, it's..." She checked her watch and cringed. "Far, far too late for that."

Dad nodded sagely. "I reckon we'll all feel better after some shut-eye, it's been a heckuva night. Are you good to stay one more day, ghost kid?"

"I can do that." In truth, he was about ready to pass out on the cot. He thought fondly of Danny Fenton's nice warm bed upstairs, far away from heavy conversations with his parents.

But some things were worth it.

"Well, alright. We'll see you in the morning then, we've got a lot to talk about. You go on ahead Mads, I want to clean up a bit."

His mom nodded and clambered to her feet. She seemed weary climbing the stairs, like she'd aged a few years since she sat down. But that was probably just the time.

After his dad shut off the soldering iron, he turned back to face Danny. His face broke into a broad grin. "Hey, Phantom?"

"Yeah?"

"Good work, kiddo."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cool thing about AO3 is that it lets me use more emojis than FF & I think that is a positive thing 🌟
> 
> I said way back at the start of this story that I'd basically written an opening scene and planned an ending when I started writing this. The tape cut-off was like the third thing I knew needed to happen.


	11. Chapter 11

It was 6:02 am when the first bird chirped outside.

Jazz took note of the time, because every detail might be important today. If things went as she hoped they would, by the end of the day, Danny would have told their parents about his dual nature. That would need to go in the memoirs. Doubtless, future historians would be interested to know the socio-psychological effects that the discovery of a third state of life had on their family, the city, and even the nation.

But all that was for the future, anyway. Today was about helping Danny.

She'd been up all night planning their approach. The necessity of a formal plan became clear after yesterday. Jazz was glad she'd had the patience to allow her mom to speak to her concerns and understand the emotions underlying them, but of course in the end she'd had to take a firm stance. That had clearly not been expected, or readily accepted.

If their mother was still reacting so viscerally to Phantom associating with the Fenton family, that was a cause for concern. She would have to intervene, with Danny's permission of course. The plan was a simple 43 step process for de-escalation, sharing mutual concerns, and working towards acceptance.

She'd put the finishing touches on it sometime after her family had finally gone to bed, and spent the time since getting ready to talk to Danny; Danny, who had once told her to never wake him up before sunrise (which, officially, wasn't until 6:31 am). But surely given the circumstances, presumably the fact that the birds were awake to observe the early twilight would mean it was close enough.

And if not, he'd get over it when the plan worked.

Mind made up, Jazz leaped from the bed fully clothed and made her way out into the hall, being careful with the door and clutching the stack of papers she'd generated to her chest.

Halfway there, a spring creaked in her parents' bedroom. She paused for a moment, making sure it wasn't followed by more movement, before continuing to pad down the hall to Danny's door. There was definitely no chance of _him_ being up. This would be considered another violation of his boundaries, but she let herself in quietly.

"Danny?"

The lump under the sheets didn't move.

Jazz approached the bed and shook the lump slightly, about where a shoulder might have been.

"Danny, it's morning."

The lump groaned and curled in on itself.

"Mom and dad will be up soon, wake up!"

There was a sigh and Jazz took that as permission to pull the sheets off her brother, who blinked against the pre-dawn light.

"Jazz? What time is it?"

"...morning?"

"Jazz."

She glanced at his alarm clock. "6:05."

Danny groaned again and grasped blindly for the blankets, which Jazz pulled right off the bed and out of reach.

"Danny, we need to talk. Mom heard the tape. She confronted me about 'conspiring with Phantom' yesterday, and I don't think I can deflect anymore." She paused for effect, but he still didn't move. Either he was trying to ignore her as some kind of flawed coping mechanism, or he had fallen back asleep. "This is serious. She's clearly in denial about the possibility of non-destructive ghosts. If you're serious about them accepting Phantom, we're going to need to take a different approach."

He finally turned over and looked at her with bleary eyes. "Jazz..."

"Just hear me out here Danny. I've written up a short plan," she handed him the stack of papers, or at least, put them on the bed next to him, "and I believe it's our best shot of salvaging the situation. Mom clearly thinks Phantom is a threat to the Fenton family in particular, and I don't think your current approach is helping your reputation in her eyes. _Either_ of your reputations, actually."

Danny sat up, with a slight frown on his face. "Um, I don't think—"

"Hold on, just give it a look over." Jazz sat on the bed next to him and flipped through the stack, pointing out the section where the front matter ended and the first step of the plan began."Now, I think dad is starting to come around to the idea that you can be trusted, so if we pull him aside in the morning, I think we can have a solid hour to talk to him before mom—"

The door swung open and they both froze, staring at it in horror. She hadn't been paying attention to the hallway.

Their mother was standing in the door-frame, still in PJs; to Jazz's surprise, she didn't look angry. Mostly just tired.

"Good morning mom!" she said quickly. "This isn't what it looks like, Danny and I were just... Uh..." She looked at Danny, who managed to look both sleep-deprived _and_ sarcastic with a single roll of tired eyes. "We have... A really good reason to be up this early."

Mom shook her head. "Jazz, honey, don't worry. I'm not angry anymore. I've had a lot of time to think about it." She turned to Danny, explaining, "I know you kids are friends with Phantom."

Her brother shifted uncomfortably on the bed, swinging his legs over the side to face their mother. He covered her meticulously laid-out plans with a pillow as he did. "Sorry we didn't tell you, mom."

"It's ok, sweetie. I understand why you didn't." Mom took a careful half-step into the room. Was she... Nervous? "I should have trusted your judgment much sooner. After last night, I've realized Phantom's motivations were not... As I expected them to be."

Danny elbowed her in the ribs and Jazz sputtered back to life. "I— What, prompted this?"

She smiled from a corner of her mouth. "It's like you always said. We just needed to talk." Their mom stepped toward the bed, giving Danny a deferential glance. He silently moved the pillow (and papers) back a bit, leaving room between them for her to sit. She did so, but directed her gaze toward the floor, silent for just a moment longer. "Do you kids remember the Pariah Dark attack last month?"

Jazz shivered. How could she forget? "Of course. What about it?"

Mom looked at her, and Jazz noticed that Danny was very carefully avoiding looking at either of them. "Phantom told us about his role in saving our town during the Ghost Zone translocation incident. It seems he's every bit as self-sacrificing as they say. I..." She choked on the words a bit and soon Jazz found herself wrapped up in a hug. "I don't know if you were involved yourselves, but I'm proud of you kids. It can't have been easy trusting a ghost after everything we've said and done, but you chose well. Both of you," she added, pulling back to bring Danny into a slightly awkward side-hug.

Danny was still avoiding her eye contact and she certainly wasn't going to ask anything aloud, so she settled for patting mom on the back. "Thank you. Um... I'm not sure what to say."

"Just say you'll be more careful now!" She tried to laugh, and it almost worked. "I'm not going to stand in the way of your friendship, but I really don't want you two getting wrapped up in any more dangerous ghost attacks. Not until your dad and I can teach you both some self-defense. I know you're going to think we're worrying too much, but neither of us wants to see you get hurt. I need to know you two will be safe out there. That goes double for Sam and Tucker, actually, if you'll pass this along to them?"

Danny nodded. "Sure thing, mom, that sounds good."

Jazz swallowed a few times before she was sure her tongue was working. "Of course. Understood."

"That's good." Mom smiled. She seemed genuinely relieved. "I'm so glad we could finally talk about this. I hope that we can all learn to trust each other a little more from now on."

"It's... Definitely a start," Jazz agreed.

"It's perfect," Danny added.

"As long as we're all up, would you like to talk to Phantom? He's just staying in the lab for another day or so while we make some arrangements and work out some fine details."

"No, I'm good," Danny said quickly, "I can talk to him some other time. I'll be busy today."

Mom seemed to find that funny. "Of course, sweetie. Have fun with your 'friend' today. I'll leave you two to discuss... Whatever you were talking about. Although please keep in mind what we've discovered today, ok?" Jazz nodded, although she wasn't quite sure what was being implied, or why Danny was blushing to the tips of his ears. "Oh, and Jazz. Just to be clear, you are no longer grounded. My apologies for how our conversation went yesterday."

"Uh... Don't mention it?"

She hugged each of them once more and then left, shutting the door behind her, leaving confusion in her wake. They sat in complete silence for a good 20 seconds before Danny snorted next to her. She looked at him incredulously; he was trying very hard not to laugh, and failing.

Jazz hit him with a pillow. Hard. "I am going to _kill_ you."

He fell over, cackling.

* * *

"This is file number A.P.-01, tape 3, session number 8. This is Maddie Fenton. Good morning, Phantom."  
  
"Morning, Maddie."  
  
"Did you sleep well?"  
  
"Yeah, pretty good. Late night, huh?"  
  
"I suppose it was. I took the liberty of passing along some of what we talked about last night to Danny and Jazz. They were up quite early this morning, I think they may have been concerned for you."  
  
"I guess so."  
  
"That's just speculation of course. I understand their caution in not wanting to reveal too much, given the circumstances."  
  
"Well, thanks. They're both good friends."  
  
"And I hope it stays that way. But as we discussed yesterday--"  
  
"No ghost fights."  
  
"Precisely. Certainly not before they can be trained in some basic self-defense techniques, if only because we can't reasonably expect you to always be around."  
  
"Yeah, that's... Fair."  
  
"It's not that we don't trust you, you see."  
  
"No, I get it. And to be honest, I'd be more comfortable if everyone I knew was able to defend themselves against ghosts."  
  
"We agree, then. And of course, I'll have to ask that you do your best to keep them out of danger, should they ever rejoin you in the field, so to speak."  
  
"I'll do my best, but..."  
  
"..."  
  
"..."  
  
"...but?"  
  
"Sorry, this is kind of hard for me to admit..."  
  
"Take your time."  
  
"I guess part of the reason I want Jazz to know more about self-defense is because of what happened earlier this year. I, um... I did some bad things. And Sam and Tucker might have been in a decent position to handle it, but Jazz is newer to all this."  
  
"You're referring to the robberies attributed to you."  
  
"Uh. Yeah. Those."  
  
"I will confess I've been hoping to discuss those in greater detail with you. It's formed a large part of my reservations in the past."  
  
"Then I guess... I want to say that I wasn't really in control of myself when it happened."  
  
"You mean your baser nature took over when your obsession wasn't fulfilled."  
  
"...what?"  
  
"Oh, sorry, is that not it? Our working theory was that you'd had an altercation with some of your human friends and your core considered it a violation of your duty to protect the town, turning you to seek power in a more anti-social manner."  
  
"Um. No. It's actually kind of worse than that."

"Would you feel comfortable elaborating?"

"Yeah, I guess you kind of deserve to know, I'm just... Uh... It's not easy to talk about."

"Because of what you did?"

"No. I mean, that was bad, but that's not why I don't like talking about it. It's like... I guess I'm vulnerable in this way that I didn't think I was."

"Vulnerable?"

"Yeah. Like in a ghost fight I can basically just hit harder, or if that's not enough I can train harder and then I'm stronger next time. But I can't change the fact that I'm a ghost, you know? I can't just train harder and not be what I am, so this is always going to be a possibility."

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I follow."

"Right. Sorry. Um. I don't really know how it worked, but a human managed to find a staff that let him control ghosts. Like, mind control them. He could just... Slip his thoughts into my head like they were mine."

"...Phantom, this—"

"Sounds crazy, I know. I wouldn't have thought it was possible either. It's basically the closest thing I've ever seen to just straight-up magic. Like, I'm guessing there's a perfectly logical explanation for it or whatever, but he sure wasn't in a hurry to explain it to me. I was basically just his puppet, I didn't need to know."

"There are some... Open questions, in our field, about the nature of ghost cognition, but what you're proposing is..."

"No, seriously, 'crazy' is the best word. I don't know if I'd believe it if it hadn't happened to me."

"...you make it sound as if you were aware of what was occurring as it happened to you."

"I was. That was the worst part."

"How so?"

"Um... If I didn't remember what I'd been doing that week, if I hadn't been living it, I would probably have a lot less... It probably wouldn't bug me so much. But I remember everything I did as I was doing it. I remember trying to stop myself and knowing it was wrong and it wasn't what I really wanted to do, but just... Failing every time. I wasn't strong enough. So even if it wasn't really my choice, everything I did is still... It's kinda on me, right?"

"You actively fought the control?"

"Yeah, but like I said, I couldn't break it myself. It was, uh, my friends that got through to me. In the end. They brought me back down to earth. I don't want to think about what would have happened if they hadn't, I guess I'd still be... A puppet."

"Perhaps it's not my place to comment, but that hardly seems accurate."

"I had somebody else in my _mind_. It was the worst moment in my whole life. It's like... How do you even fight what's in your own brain? Just... I don't know. It makes my skin crawl thinking about it, and it could happen again. I broke his stupid staff thing but what if there's another one? I'll always know there's a chance now. It was horrible, and I couldn't stop it, and it could happen again."

"But you weren't some mindless golem. Yes, it happened, but you tried to fight back. And you broke whatever control there was, eventually. I think that's... Admirable, I suppose."

"Heh. You really _have_ changed your opinion if you think I'm not mindless anymore."

"I'm being perfectly serious, Phantom. Since you've been with us these past few days, you've shown yourself to be capable of learning from your past experiences and stimuli and adapting to them. You're enormously self-sacrificing in the face of danger. You're... Social, in a way that I could have never expected. You claim you weren't able to break free of the control this man had over you, but your friends were able to assist you. _You_ were the one who made those friends, you built yourself a support network that would be able to assist you in times of need. That's an adaptation you made."

"I'm... Wow, that's a lot to, uh..."

"My key point, Phantom, is that you engineered your situation to be able to access help when you need it. There's no shame in that. Humans do the same thing."

"...But what if I didn't have my friends around to stop me?"

"We'll just have to make sure that never happens."

* * *

"Let's stop there, shall we? There are a few more things we need to discuss, but—"

Maddie's pen hovered over the page.

That was true, wasn't it? Everything she had said, certainly, but Phantom was right too.

She _had_ changed.

Or maybe ghosts had changed. But it was certainly different now. A week ago she could have never considered the possibility that ghosts might learn and grow, or experience thoughts and emotions in the same way humans did. Of course, they didn't, in a technical sense; they were built of ectoplasm and strange forms of matter rather than carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

But she was less interested in the technicalities now. Phantom might have a core of densely-packed energy rather than a brain and an electrochemical nervous system, but his thoughts and processes were no less sophisticated. That was what they'd been missing, wasn't it? Different, not primitive.

She looked up at him. He looked back at her with such intelligent eyes. It felt like such a blinding oversight in retrospect, one that had crashed onto her all at once.

Where _had_ her original biases crept in? When? Was it the erroneous result of over 20 years of careful theoretical study, or had it slipped in from popular media? Either idea was chilling, but the idea that it had never been grounded in fact was more so.

How much of the rest of their research was baseless conjecture?

New theories had kept her up most of the night. The emotions had washed away and left a web of interconnected ideas, so wide-spanning it eventually outstripped her ability to see the whole picture. The only thing she knew for sure was that she needed to question everything.

How much more was Phantom going to teach them?

The mere fact that—

"Maddie?"

What? Oh. "Sorry, Phantom." She must have been staring, he looked quite uncomfortable. Best to play it off, break the tension. "It was a late night, wasn't it?"

Phantom smiled a bit. "Late nights don't bug me. It's way easier to stay up late than wake up early."

Something about that played at the back of her brain. Too relatable to her days of high school and sleepless undergrad, perhaps."You really are a teenager."

"No no, remember, we established this; not a dead teenager, I'm like a cool alien."

Maddie chuckled and Phantom looked incredibly pleased with himself.

"I suppose I should be thankful you come in peace."

"Always. Although in the movies they never really say if they come in war, they just start fighting."

And he didn't. Even when _they_ did, come to think of it.

"Phantom, if you don't mind my asking, there's actually something else I've been wondering."

"What's up?"

"Why do you choose to trust Jack and I? Even initially, before we talked. You've always seemed a lot more comfortable us than you ha reason to be."

"I dunno. I guess I never thought you'd really hurt me." He shrugged like the answer wasn't particularly interesting to him, although it really only raised more questions. "I guess I wanted to trust that you'd, uh, figure it out eventually."

"And that's all?"

He shrugged again. "Pretty much."

An insane thought occurred to her. A complete leap of logic, but... If Phantom was willing to extend his trust, in the face of all evidence, perhaps they could repay the favor.

"There is... A suggestion I would like to make, if you're willing." She would have to check with Jack, but something told her this was exactly the sort of thing he'd come up with himself. For once, she didn't mind that.

"What's that?"

"If you'd like, you could stay here sometimes. Not for experimentation," she hastily added, "but if you are in the neighborhood I'm sure our family would be glad to have you any time. And of course, if you were ever injured in a fight or need a place to sleep, Jack and I could—"

"Maddie," She looked back at him. He seemed to be highly emotional, but...

Phantom was smiling.

"Thank you. I'd like that." ****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember that time that Danny got mind controlled but since his entire family and all his friends died like 3 episodes later everyone just kind of moved past it? He didn't even have to spend a whole episode visiting his brother's vineyard in France.
> 
> That's perspective for you.


End file.
